Secrets
by Peanut16
Summary: Stephanie and Joe's daughter Jade is brought to front, uprooted from her home when a threat to Stephanie is made, and she fears for her daughters safety. That in mind, Ranger bring everyone to a safehouse to protect them. Lester/Jade friendship lot H/C.
1. The People

There are different types of secrets. Two types to be exact. The ones that are bad, and those that are good.

Everybody has secrets. But not all have a bad secret. A secret that can hurt someone. Or someone's. No, I don't have a _really _bad one, but the one I have, is effecting people, making people suspicious, and I'd have to say, that it's hurting me more than anyone else.

See, it all started when I was sixteen, and a boy named Joseph Morelli took my virginity. Back then, I was nieve. Back then, I didn't get, that when people talked about birth control and pregnancy, that it could happen weather you wanted it to or not.

Which leaves me here, 30 years old, involved with one man, owning the child of another. Yeah, that's it, my secret, the big one. I have a kid. Her full name is, Jade Iris Plum. She is fourteen years old, and turning fifteen on the 13th of July. Her social security number is 549-20-2496, and she lives at 4151 Zimmerman Lane, Los Angeles, CA 90071. I keep in touch with her, quietly of course.

Here's the catch, nobody knows about her except me.

She is better at attracting attention than I am, and so, the only reason she's causing the secret to hurt now in life, is because I am very aware of the fact that somebody found out about her. Through me.

So how do you save your daughter from an evil stalker when she lives across the country? Simple. Bring her to me.

Ranger and I have been trying at this whole 'couple' thing, so I've been at his place. There's a stalker and I need to be there anyway. Works out great.

But then where does Jade go?

I have to tell. I have to tell Ranger about my most guarded secret. My daughter. What do I say? 'Hey Ranger, by the way, when Morelli knocked me up fourteen years ago, he got me pregnant, and now, I have a daughter being terrorized by the same guy chasing me'. Yeah, right. He'd probably laugh.

So, I did the 'simple' route, and dragged my lazy butt to the airport. I used all the money I had saved up, and bought a two-way ticket, plus an extra for Jade on the way back. I am currently on my way to Los Angles.

Nobody knew she had been born, and nobody knew I was leaving for a small vacation. Hopefully nobody would notice that I was gone. I mean, I _had _bought the tickets with cash.

I got off of the airplane at the Los Angles International Airport. It was noon. Hot, very very hot. It was the middle of the summer and I was burning up. I dealt with it. I was wearing a tank top and jean shorts anyway. My daughter was at a friend's house. A friend I had met before Jade's birth. Just, a friend, I'll explain later, I promise.

Anyhow, I got to the house, gave her a hug, and explained the situation. This was going to be fun. The flight home was the next morning, so she packed a whole bunch of stuff, and we spent the day catching up. Ranger called, I lied. How fun. I had to tell him I was out of town for a while, then I made the static noise, and hung up.

I was so dead.

I woke up the next morning, ready as ever to get on the plane. We had an hour and a half until the plane left so we grabbed our bags, tossed them in the back of a cab, and hurtled off to the air port.

An hour later, we were lounging on the plane, ready to take off. I hated take off, always have. It makes your ears funky. My daughter of course tried to go into detail about how it was the air pressure from high altitudes…blah blah blah. I 'kinda blanked out.

Boring, agonizing hours later, we landed. Jade was asleep, head resting on my shoulder.

"Jade." I whispered, shaking her slightly.

"Mmmm?" She mumbled.

"We landed."

That got her. Her head popped up and she frantically looked out the window.

"So, what's it like? Ooh, where are we going to stay?"

"With Ranger, and you'll see what it's like."

"Ranger? Does he even know I exist?"

I cringed. "Not exactly. Nobody does. Not even Morelli."

"Dad doesn't? Didn't somebody notice when you gave birth?"

"I was out of state on 'spring break'."

"Oh." That's all she said because the flight attendant told us came up next to us, standing slightly behind the seat. She waved us out of the seat, and we followed the line through the doors, onto the walkway. We walked around a couple corners, down a ways, and we finally got to luggage. All I had was a small backpack.

She had two suitcases and three backpacks.

"Do you really need all this?" I asked incredulously. "Never mind." I said. She was my kid anyway.

We found all of her bags, and I led her out the sliding doors, and to the front of the building where I could get a cab. I had purposely left the Truck in my lot; otherwise they'd track me to the airport.

When we stopped at my lot, I got out, and helped her get everything from the back, then gave the driver a tip. He nodded thanks.

"Holy shit. Is that yours?"

"Yes and no." It was mine mostly. Ranger had another, and it was the one that I usually used. It was cool.

"Sweet." She said, nodding and running her hand around the black coat. Then she did the unpredictable. She started mumbling car…stuff. About the hoarse power, engine, chrome wheels, coat, model. She sounded like a car freak. Right. She is. Well, that and web building. She practically lives on the Internet.

I tossed her bags in the back, along with mine, and hopped in the driver's seat. She got up into the passenger's seat, and I backed out of the lot. The seven-minute drive from my place to his, felt like seven hours rather than minutes.

When I pulled into RangeMan, I called Ranger.

"Yo."

"Hey, I'm back. Just pulled in."

"On my way down. Later babe."

I smiled as the dial tone filled my ear. I flipped it shut, and hopped out, gathering all the stuff from the back. We had just finished getting the last suitcase out when the elevator doors binged open.

I turned towards him and smiled. His smile was broad, but it faltered. He stopped about a foot from me.

"Ranger, I'd like you to meet my Daughter, Jade. Jade, this is Ranger."

_**Okay, this will be continued.**_

_**R&R**_

_**Peanut16**_


	2. Chapter 2

Silence. Dead silence. That was it.

"Yeah…" I mumbled, shuffling my feet.

"Nice to meet you." Ranger finally said, extending a hand.

I let out a breath of air I didn't know I was holding. "Thank god." I whispered, relieved that he said something.

Jade smiled warmly and shook his hand back. "You too. Heard a lot about you." She was still smiling as she said this.

There was a few more seconds of uncomfortable silence. "So, where am I supposed to put these things?" She asked, looking around the garage for the first time. I could almost see the drool.

"Upstairs. I'll help you carry that." Ranger said ocuardly, grabbing her two big suitcases. I grabbed my bag, and one of her backpacks, while she grabbed the other two. Ranger led us both into the elevator, and pressed seven, keying it up.

When the doors opened, we all piled into the entry way while Ranger unlocked it. He pushed the door open, and again, we all piled into the apartment.

It was still the same, although I had only been gone one day, but still, he could've done something dramatic. Doubtful...but maybe.

I glanced at my daughter, watching her take it all in. She, like me, didn't have the gift of hiding her emotions. She was clearly showing her approval and shock. Despite my description of it, you'd never guess how...awesome, this place looked. I watched her, as I knew what she was doing. Counting the rooms, deciding what was behind each door, and finally, where she would be sleeping. Her eyes were settled on the couch.

For a few more moments, we stood in an uncomfortable silence. Ranger broke it. "I can take the couch, Steph, you and...Jade, can take the bed."

"Oh, um, I'll take the couch." Jade offered shyly. Suddenly she went from shy, to grinning. "You two love birds can share the bed."

"Jade." I growled out between clenched teeth.

"What?" She asked, "You know it's true." She bribed.

I settled for glaring at her. Unfortunately, she _was _right, and she knew it too.

Ranger nodded,and I just felt my face heat up.

It was silent for a little more, all three of us, standing there in the uncomfortable silence. Until, of course, my stomach decided that I was too hungry, and that I needed to fill it.

Ranger chuckled, and I glared at him. "Come on babe, lets get you guys fed. It's about time for lunch anyways." He commented, turning towards the kitchen, shaking his head. I turned to Jade and she was smiling full on. That smile she got from her dad. Thinking about it, she was a perfect mix of us. She had my shade of brown hair, but she got it strait. Not a curly mess, thanks to her father. But she got my blue eyes, and pale skin. Unfortunately she also got her fathers temper, and love of knifes. Not a common known fact either, that Morelli loves knifes that is. Although, the whole computer obsession, I don't know where she got it from, because I can check e-mail, surf the web, and run searches, but thats about it. The car thing she got from Morelli. She's like a guy when it comes to fast cars.

When Ranger came back in, he was smirking slightly,but thats all the emotion he was showing. Not a blank mask though, cause I could clearly see the black eyes, and I _knew _what that meant, and it was not a good thing. Not now at least.

"Ella should be up in five."

"Ella?" Jade asked from beside me. "Whos Ella?"

"My house keeper." Ranger said.

"Oh my god! You have a house keeper?! That is like, so cool!" She shrieked.

I glanced at Ranger, who had stopped where he was, and stared wide eyed, slightly frightened by her little...outburst. I snickered. He glared. Just like before, just I was the one glaring, and he was the one laughing.

"Sorry." Jade said, "I've just never been somewhere with a house keeper."

About that time,Ella made her appearance, causing Jade to smile _really _big, and me and Ranger to shake our heads. Ella set all the food on the counter, and left, telling us to call her if we needed anything.

Jade was ecstatic about this.

Turns out that Ella had made us BLT's. I already knew that the bacon was fake, meaning that it was healthy. I'd say yuck, but it's actually pretty good.

When Jade was finished, she asked politely where the bathroom was, and if she could use it. Ranger told her how to get there, and she left, leaving me alone with Ranger. Gulp.

"So, would you of told me about her if you didn't have the guy stalking both of you?" He asked calmly.

I cringed. "Someday, I guess." I mumbled.

"Steph." He said when my eyes dropped to my plate. He sighed lightly.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, tears welling up. "It's not something I told anyone. Not even the father, or my parents. Nobody knows she exist except the people in-where she lives." I said, barely not saying where she was. I had worked so hard to keep her safe. Not only does she live under different parents, but also in a different state, and name. She is listed as Jade Iris Delli.

"Who is the father?"

I sniffled. "Morelli." I said. "You heard about me when I was sixteen right?"

"Behind the eclair case?"

"Yeah, see, I got pregnant. I left, went to a place nobody could find me. According to my parents, I was at spring break,so when I was showing, they didn't see me. I left her there. I visit her a couple times a year. Birthday, Christmas, once because she was in _really _big trouble, but mainly, on occasions, or because I can." I paused and looked up at him. "Please don't tell anyone."

"Stephanie. I would not, and will not tell anybody something your not ready for them to hear. Do you trust me?"

"Yes." That was an easy question.

He stood up gracefully,and came around to my side of the table. He picked me up with his hands under my armpits, then wrapped his arms around me in a big hug. When he pulled back, he flashed me a smile, and pressed his lips to mine. His hands found their way under the hem of the shirt and was playing with my stomach and hip, while mine were up around his neck, keeping him close.

When we pulled apart for air, it was because Jade had came out, squeaked, the ducked back into the bedroom. "If it safe to come out yet?!" She called from the bedroom.

I pulled farther from Ranger and sighed as my face heated up. "Yeah Jade." I said as calmly as possible.

She came out from the bedroom, head down, mumbling something. Huh, I thought, it sounded suspiciously like Spanish.

"I'll be in the living room." She said louder.

"Okay." I said, watching her leave. I turned back to Ranger when she had left the room. "Well, that was embarrassing."

He smiled. "How much Spanish does she know?" He asked.

1

"I don't know. I thought she was speaking spanish, but I didn't know she knew any. Well, except in school. She's going into 9th grade, and she's been taking Spanish since fifth. They started her early."

"So, she's, what, fourteen?"

"Yep, fifteen on the 13th."

He nodded, smiling lightly. I was silent, then sighed. "I'm sorry Ranger."

"What for?"

"For not telling you about Jade. For leaving unexpectedly. I'm sorry."

He was silent for a minute. "I guess we should work on that huh?"

"Yeah." I sighed again.

He pulled me into him and kissed my forehead. "Are you going anywhere today?"

"I need to stop by the bonds office, and I wanted to show Jade around, but thats abut it."

"Okay. When you do go out, bring Lester, and stay with him, please."

"Got it."

He started walking to the door as he spoke. "I've got meetings until six, so I wont see you until then." He was at the door, and had grabbed his keys from the side dish. He opened the door and got all the way out the door, when he turned back to me, where I had leaned against the open door frame.

"Be safe." He said, looking me straight in the eye before giving me a searing kiss and stepping into the elevator.

I stood there for about thirty seconds before I realized that I _had _been standing there, and shook my head, clearing it, as I shut the door and headed into the living room.

Jade was settled on the couch with the laptop she had saved up for. She had baby sat on a daily basis for a couple families, for about two full months, and she had enough for the laptop. Plus, she had also gotten a $1,000 grant from the state to help buy one. She had sent in an letter/application type thing for it. She had to write an essay. It was a good one too.

So, she had bought a $1,199 dollar laptop with a 17" Screen, from Alien Ware. She can go into details on it, but she was in love with it. Since her house in California already had things like, Microsoft Word, Windows XP, things like that, she didn't have to buy any of it, she used the extra money to buy a cool looking case and more computer books.

"Hows it going?" I asked as I walked in.

"Good, just updating my web page. I keep a journal on it."

"You get internet here?"

"Sure, just hacked into RangeMan's."

I froze. "You hacked into RangeMan's Internet?"

"Yeah, why?" She asked, looking up from her computer screen.

"It's a security company, you aren't supposed to be able to do that."

"Yeah, well, it's not my fault they have bad protection from hackers."

"They have the best." I responded easily.

"No. Obviously not. Even I can get into it." I gave her a disbelieving stare. "Look...come here." She said, gesturing to me.

I went over and sat down next to her, and looking over at the screen.

She was in a...thing. It was a black screen and she was typing in codes, it would respond back,asking her for stuff, and she'd do more stuff. A minute later, she smiled. "I'm in. I'm not going into their files, because I don't care, but right now,when I type here," She pointed to a line on the screen. "It will appear on every computer in the building. Actually, it should come up with a black screen, then the white writing. Font size 12,Verdana. I set it. Oh, I should change it to Party LET. It's such a cool font." She started typing in a different window, then went back to the other one, and clicked on the line she had pointed to.

_Hi, I'm Jade. If you can read this, respond please._ She typed in.

_Who are you and what do you want? _Was the response.

_Hey. I told you, I'm Jade, and I don't want anything. Please don't be alarmed. I'm not interested in any files. I just wanted to show my mom this. She said Ranger had the best security. We're upstairs right now, the 7th floor. Did you know that your internet is easy to hack into? What's your name? _She typed in. I was stunned, open mouth stunned.

_I don't know who you are, or how you knew about the 7th floor, but-_ The person on the other end started. Jade typed back, overwriting his privileges.

_Look dude, I told you, I'm Jade. I'm on the seventh floor with my mom, Steph. Of course I knew about it I'm on it. Duh. _I stared at her. "What did you do that for?!" I screeched at her. She just told them that she was my daughter. Nobody was supposed to know she was my daughter, more like that I _had _a daughter.

_Keep Stephanie out of this. _Was the immediate reply.

My cell phone range. I hopped up and ran over to the counter,snatching my cell from it. "Yo."

"Stephanie. What is Jade doing?" It was Ranger.

"Oh, well, she hacking into your internet, and I told her she wasn't supposed to be able to do that, and she was showing me that she could, and so, she hacked into the whole system and is now typing to the entire building. Who is she talking to anyways?"

"Tank and Lester. Their in the control room. Their the only ones getting it."

"Oh, um, I'll have her stop."

"Good idea." He said with no humor in his voice.

"Sorry."

"Later babe." He said, ignoring my apology. He's probably not that mad.

I shut my phone and went back to the couch. She was still arguing with Tank and Lester. "Can I type them something?" I asked her.

"Sure, just type here."

I nodded and took the laptop, typing where she had showed me. _Hey Tank, Lester. It's me, Steph, um, I'm sorry for Jade disturbing you._

_How do you know our names?_

_Ranger just called me up. Bye, I'll explain later._ I typed in quickly, then shutting the laptop off all together. I set it on the couch.

"Jade. Do not do that again."

"What? I was just showing you. Plus, I didn't hurt anything."

I was about to respond when my cell rang again. "Yes?" I answered irritably.

"Steph, it's Tank. Just calling up to check on you for a minute."

"Yes, that was me on the computer. Yes I have a daughter. I'm sorry about disturbing you. I have to go though,I'll see you later." And I hung up. Probably he was going to kill me later.

I stared at Jade for a minute. "Okay, we're going to the bonds office, I need to pick up my skips. Get ready for the questions. And please, don't say anything."

"Fine." She snapped and stood up.

I grabbed my keys out of the dish on the way to the door, and hoped into the elevator. Jade got in with me, and I looked to the camera, waving. If Lester and Tank were in the control room, they'd see me, and my 14 year old, teenage daughter standing in the elevator.

"This is going to be fun." Jade said with enthusiasm.

I coughed. 'Yeah right.' My head screamed at me.

This _was _going to be fun. In a weird sort of way though.

_**Okay, so I'm sick again, and everything got held up. Sorry if some of this chapter sucks, I wrote it though class. I have lots of make up Algebra. Urg.**_

_**R&R**_

_**Peanut**_


	3. The Injury and the Doctor

When the elevator opened on 5, I took a deep breath and stepped out, Jade mere steps behind me. Lester and Tank, as expected, were on Control room duty.

"'Kay Bombshell, you got explaining to do." Tank said as I entered.

"Yeah beautiful." Lester said in agreement.

"Where do you want me to begin?"

"The beginning. When'd you have a kid? No offense...Jade?" Lester commented.

"None taken." Jade responded.

"Okay,"I started. "It started when I was sixteen." And, so,I went on to explain about not using birth control, and leaving, to have the baby, then about how I go and visit, then finally about the new stalker stalking me.

"Okay..." Lester dragged on. "Jade, your turn. How in the world did you hack into RangeMan's systems?"

She looked at them slightly confused, then understood that she was supposed to be able too. "Well, what part? I mean, it was easy. Since I wasn't going for files, I just bypassed all those security features to get to the monitors."

Tank and Lester narrowed theirs eyes at her, and she shrugged. I broke the silence. "Okay, Lester, Ranger said not to leave without you."

Ten minutes later, I was getting out of my truck, at the bonds office. Lula and connie were both in the office, like usual, Lula was doing about as much hard work as ever. She was filing her nails, while Connie was painting her own. "Girl! How-" She stopped as Jade and Lester entered. "Ooh, look, it's Lester right? And look, who is she? Looks like she was made at the beach, and looks a lot like you Steph. Funny huh." She said, obviously not making the connection.

"Um, yeah, Lula,Connie, this is my daughter, Jade."

"What! You had a daughter and you didn't tell us girl! Why? You embarrassed?"

"No, stop Lula, Connie, I hadn't told anyone until today. Jade, this is Lula," I pointing to the spandex covered person filing her nails. "And thats Connie."

"Wow." Lula said. "No wonder she looked so much like you. Oh, and who's the father?"

"Morelli."

"Wait, if Morelli's the father, and no one knows, then he doesn't even know he has a child?"

"Nope. But, really, I just wanted to get some files."

"Okay." Connie said, getting over the shock of me having a child and handing me a small stack of FTA's.

"

After a few more questions, I got out to the truck, and loaded everyone in. Okay, the first one is down the street." I said, starting the engine.

I road down the street, past St. Fransis and into his driveway. Mr. Whyit, accused for showing his knife in public, and threatening the store clerk. Lester agreed to take the back, and let me take the front with Jade. I didn't really want her to come up, but she insisted. I grabbed my stun gun from my purse, and stuck it in the back of my shorts, walking up to the house.

He answered on the second knock. "Yeah? Who are you?"

"Stephanie Plum, I'm here representing your bond agent, you missed your court date,and I need to take you in."

I had barely finished when he whipped out a knife from behind him. "I'm not going anywhere with you!" Whyit shouted at me, then unexpectedly, he jabbed the knife at me, just missing me. He turned and ran into the house, but instead of going for the backdoor, he went for the stairs. Before I could go far, Jade pushed passed me, knife in hand, running after him.

"Jade!" I called after her.

She continued up, so I ran to the backdoor, and opened it, dragging Lester with me up the stairs. There were four doors up here, and they were all shut. Suddenly, there was a loud thud, coming from the door to my left, and I turned to it, intending on opening it. Of course, Lester pushed me to the side, supposedly safety, and opened it going in side.

By the time I got off the floor, Lester had the skip in cuffs, face down on the floor, and Jade was standing in the middle of the room, heaving for air. "Jade? You okay butterfly?" I asked worried.

"Peachy-keen." She gasped out. She took a slow breath, and stood all the way up, then slowly walked from the room, and down the stairs. I looked down at the FTA, then at Lester. He picked him up, and dragged him down the stairs, 'accidentally' shoving him into a wall.

We pulled up at the police station ten minutes later, and me and Lester went in. Jade wanted to stay in the car.

We got through booking him easily, and with no confrontations of Morelli. Thank god. I didn't want to talk to him quite yet. Even though I really needed to.

We walked back out to the truck together, Lester keeping a sharp eye out for anything abnormal. Other than me.

When we got in, Jade looked up, dropping her shirt back down over her stomach. "Hi." She squeaked out. "That was quick."

"Yeah, it was. Are you sure your okay?"

"Uh...yeah. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Your acting weird." I accused her as I pulled out of the lot.

"Whats the next address?" I asked Lester. He flipped open one of the folders, and read off an address farther across town. As I drove, I kept glancing back at Jade, noticing that she was blinking more, as if she was battling sleep. I frowned.

When we pulled up at the address Lester had given me, we all got out and walked up to the house, Jade coming up the slowest.

I knocked on the door. When nobody answered, I knocked again. This time, there was still nothing. Lester had me and Jade step aside, and he kicked the door down.

We all filed in, calling out his name. Perry McLancie. I followed the sound of the tv into the living room. There was a small tv against the back wall, a coffee table in the middle of the room, and a lone recliner, leaned back facing the tv. In the recliner, passed out and drunk, was a very fat and ugly, Perry McLancie. He smelt like alcohol, and that was only confirmed by the empty beer cans littering the floor, along with pizza boxes, and empty chip bags. I took the stungun from the back of my shorts, and pressed it to him arm. When I pressed the button with a small smile...nothing happened.

I frowned and looked at the piece of machinery. I shook it, then hit it, and tried it again. This time, he woke up when nothing happened. "Who the fuck are you?!" He roared, standing up,out of the chair. Without waiting for an answer, he shoved me out of his way, and took off as fast as he could go. I hit the wall, but got back up and started after him.

"He's running out the back!" I shouted to Lester and Jade, throwing myself out the backdoor. I tripped over the door frame, and went sprawling, face-first onto the ground.

I could feel Jade trying to pull me up, so I helped heave myself up off the ground. "You okay?" She asked, scanning me up and down.

"I'm fine. Just tripped. You look a little pale." I commented.

"Oh, I was just worried."

I paused. "Oh." I looked through the back yard, and could see Lester had caught him, and was walking back towards us with Perry in tow.

"You got him?" Jade asked Lester. He nodded, and she nodded back, then turned into the house.

I walked with Perry and Lester to the Truck, where we shackled him into the back.

I turned around when I heard the door shut. Jade walked out, and something was off...she looked, I don't know, fatter, just...wrong. I frowned. She pulled the door shut as best as possible, seen as Lester had broken some of the hinges, then came down to us. She looked at Perry in the back seat with a disgusted look, then got in, sitting as far away as possible. I hopped in the drivers seat, and Lester got in the passengers seat.

It only took about five minutes of silence until Perry started making lewd comments to Jade. She looked, if possible, even more disgusted.

"Come on baby," He prodded. "I'll make it worth you while."

She whipped her head around at him. "Oh shut up already you sick fuck!" She shouted, then cringed.

JADE"S POV

God that annoying piece of shit, I thought. He kept talking to me, leering at me and it was getting to be too much. I hurt, really, really badly, and this was not helping. Back tracking a little, when we were at the first guys house, I chased him up the steps. Not a good idea. When I saw all the doors, one of them was just shutting, so I went in, thinking I was going to catch him by surprise. Other way around. When I opened the door, he got me, jabbing the knife into my left side. It's more to the front than on the side, but it is farther left than right. Then, THEN, he kicked me. The sick, fucking psychotic bastered kicked me . Right in the ribs.

I didn't want to tell either of them, because I know that they would take me to the doctors, and I really, really hate the doctors. Bad experience.

So, when we got to Perry's house, they went off to find him, and I went off to find the bathroom. In the bathroom, I found a few hand towels, and pressed them into the wound that was bleeding heavily. My shirt was soaked,but it was a red t-shirt, so the color was just a bit darker. I stuck some of the towels over it, trying to make it look natural, and headed out. I found my mom laying on her face on the ground.

Suddenly, the car stopped, jerking me back to reality. The seat belt that was crossed over the wound pulled tight and I screamed. The pain was almost unbearable. The seat belt was digging into the fresh wound, making it bleed through the shirt.

Realizing that we had only stopped, I bit back any more of a scream, and tried desperately to relax into my seat.

"Jade?" Lester asked at the same time as Steph said "Butterfly?"

"I'm fine. Sorry, I was thinking." I croaked out.

"You don't seem fine." She accused again, still eying me suspiciously.

We got back to RangeMan, a while later. We had stopped at the police station and dropped off Mr. Fat and Ugly...or Perry, then came back here. Thank god.

I didn't know how much longer I could last without stopping the bleeding, I was already getting cold and dizzy. Blood loss does that to you.

We all got into the elevator, and pushed the button for five. When it binged upon five, Lester smiled and waved good by, and left, supposedly heading for the control room. Mom used the key fob to get us up to the seventh floor, and we rode in silence.

I had my back to the wall, legs spread to shoulder width, arms pressed tightly to my side. I clenched my teeth and waited for it to arrive. When it did, I stepped into the apartment, announcing that I was going to take a shower, I blamed it on all the ickyness of that house we were in, Perry's that is.

I went back through the bedroom, and into the bathroom, then shut and locked the door. Once in and locked, I let out a breath of air, and turned the water on. I made it a comfortable warm, and settled with that.

First thing I did, was take the towels out from under my shirt. I tossed the blood soaked rags into the sink, and peeled off my t-shirt, careful not to do something stupid, like stick my fingers in it or something. After shedding the rest off my clothes, I stepped into the shower, and started rinsing away the extra blood, and scrubbing away any that had dried on around the wound.

When I could clearly see it (the stab wound) I shut off the water, and stepped out of the shower. I checked the door again, just to be sure, and dug around the bathroom for a first aid kit. If there was anything I knew better that computers, fighting, and eating, it was first aid. I had taken the regular class each year since fifth grade, and had also taken a Red Cross course, then the one with baby sitting, and three others with my Girl Scout troop. I'm not in the troop any more though, all we did was work, work, work, we hardly went anywhere for fun, and I mean, just for fun, not because it would be fun AND we'd get a badge, but for fun.

But back to the point.

I found one in the cabinet above the sink in the mirror. (One of those cabinet mirror things) I grabbed a few things from it, tweezers, gauz pads, tape, and small alcohol wipes. I started by using the one of the alcohol wipes to clean it, then I used the tweezers to pull the piece of fabrik from it. It was from something...I'm just not sure what. I cleaned it again, then, with a grimace, pressed the gauz pad over it. I kept it in place with a few strips of medical tape. The last thing I had to do, was tape up my ribs. Because of the kick, I was pretty sure that I had either bruised, or cracked a rib.

I tossed away all of the wrappers, and alcohol pads, then took my shirt, and placed it in the laundry bin. I hope it's okay though...

After quickly sliding into the clothes I had, I wrapped a towel around my chest, and walked into the living room, keeping an eye open for Ranger. "Hey." I said to Steph, who was lounging on the couch watching mindless tv.

"Hey. Better?"

"Much. I think it was his smell, and just the overall way he felt...it was so dirty."

She nodded her head in agreement, and I went for clothes.

Seven minutes later, I was on the couch next to Steph, sporting a whole new out it. Pajamas. I had also slipped my hair up into a loose bun, mainly because it was bugging me, but I couldn't do much with it. It would hurt.

Oh, and by the way, tank top and shorts pajama sets, not good when your suffering from blood loss. It gets VERY cold.

I'm not sure how long we sat there watching anything from scooby-doo to Dr. Phil, but at some point, the door opened, and we heard keys being dropped into the dish.

Ranger was back.

"Babe?" He called out turning around. He locked eyes with Steph...mom, and smiled.

"How were the meetings?" She asked.

"Good. We officially have a new client. How about you?"

"Good as well. We got in two skips, Perry McLancie, and Loi Whyit."

He nodded to her, still smiling.

Me and Steph's stomach's grumbled, voicing our hunger.

Ranger smiled at us. "Like Mother like daughter."

I settled for glaring at him.

"I called Ella before I came up. She should be here any minute."

That made me smile. Mmmm, food.

Steph followed Ranger through to the bedroom, and I decided NOT to go that way.

I knew it was going to take time to get off the couch, so I started getting up, slowly, being careful not to irritate it. Especially since this probably going to be the only time I don't have to be super aware of my surroundings. Mom never is anyways.

Somebody knocked twice at the door, and started to let them selves in. First instinct told me to get my knife and stand gaurd out of site, but the smart part of me said, 'it's Ella, calm down and put on the show.' Going with the smaprt part of me, I took a deep breath, and plastered a smile on my face. "Hello?" She sang out as she entered with the tray.

"Hi." I said, following behind her. When she set it down, she turned to me, with a big smile.

"You must be Jade. It's nice to meet you dear. Be sure to call if you need anything."

"Oh, okay."

When Ranger came back into the room with Steph, they were both changed into more comfortable clothes. Mom had on one of her knit cotton pj sets, like mine, just a different color, mine was pink, hers was purple and blue, while Ranger had on a pair of black sweats and another painted on black t-shirt.

We all sat at the table, or rather, they sat, and I lowered myself into the seat, without making a scene. It was a chicken stirfry, and it was great. That was the only way to describe it. Delicious, awesome, spectacular, better than anything I'd ever tasted.

I leaned back slightly in my chair, stretching out carefull, and hiding a grimace.

When I looked up from the table, Ranger was studying me, assessing me almost. We locked eyes, and he continued watching me, waiting for something.

"So." Steph said, breaking the silence. "Since we have time before we even have to think about bed...I was thinking we could watch a movie together or something."

She looked between us for a second.

"Works for me." I replied, not breaking eye contact.

"Ranger? You gonna watch it with us?"

Ranger finally broke eye contact to look over at her. "Sure babe." He flashed her a grin, and Steph bounced out of the seat,more energetic than I'd seen her.

When she left, Ranger stood, and grabbed all the dished, placing them on the counter, then turned around and leaned against it, arms crossed over his chest. "So, Jade, you going to explain why you didn't tell anybody that your injured?"

I jerked up, then cringed, regretting it at the jolt of pain the it sent up my ribs. I tried to clear my face, but no matter what I did, it wouldn't work. "What makes you think I am injured?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Other than the bloody medical supplies? I'd say it was the fact that you cringe every time you move." He paused and his features visibly softened. "How bad is it?"

"Nothing I can't deal with." I replied, standing as best I could. I was going to go sit down on the couch and enjoy a pain reliever induced good time, and movie.

I jumped when he caught me with an hand on my arm. "Be serious."

I stared at him a second, then sighed, leaning-lightly against the back of the chair. "Stab wound, bruised but possible cracked rib. "I said with a light shrug.

He raised an eyebrow as his blank face came down. "How about you start at the beginning." He suggested.

So I did, quickly of course, because I didn't want Steph to come in while we were talking. I told him about the take down, and about using rags to hold the bleeding off, but 'forgot' to mention the car ride incident, that was just embarrassing.

"I'll be fine, just, please,please please, promise me you WONT tell anybody. I know how to take care of myself, and this is no different than any other time." I said, almost pleading for him not to. If he told, Steph would go all protective mom on me, bringing me tea, and soup, and healthy stuff to make me better. I will eat the healthy stuff as it is, but she'd go above and beyond, sending me to doctors to get blood test Shivers and things like that...you know?

He didn't say anything.

"Promise me!" I shouted at him.

"I can't do that." He replied calmly.

"Why not? Nobody has to know! I'm fine, it's not like it's life or death!" I was getting impatient. I just needed him to promise me that he wouldn't tell, thats it!

He didn't respond.

Steph chose that time to come in, announcing proudly that she got the dvd player to work.

Too angry to feel any sort of pain, I tromped into the living room, and curled up on a small chair. A second later, Ranger and Steph came in, holding hands. Ranger laid on the couch, stretching out on his back, then pulled Steph down on him.

Oh, I was so right about them being love birds.

With a quick kiss, they started the movie. We skipped through the previews, to the beginning of the movie. Apparently, Steph had put Underworld in, which was fine by me considering it was my all time favorite movie.

I snuggled a little deeper into the chair, and carefully stretched out my right leg, so that it was up and over the edge of the chair. (I was sitting sideways in it.)

The movie flew by in a mixture of pain and pleasure, and by the end,I was barely awake and freezing cold,not to mention aching, EVERYWHERE. Steph was asleep on top of Ranger, head resting against his chest and tucked under his chin. Ranger was awake, but he laid there for a minute after it was over, then turned it off, and started lifting her off of him so that he could get up. Without setting her down, he twisted his hold so that he was holding her like a baby. He walked into his room with her.

With him out of the room, I sighed, and started getting up,using my arms for leverage, to pull me out of the chair. I was almost out, when Ranger suddenly appeared in front of me. He must've come out of the bedroom. He put one hand under my right arm pit (The one doing all the work), and the other on my upper arm (of my left arm) Then, he pulled me to my feet. Unfortunately, my feet were still asleep from laying in the chair like that, because when he did set me on my feet and let go, I started to collapse. The bad part is that he caught me,making my whole boy jerk to a stop, also causing pain to spread through my chest. I cried out in pain.

This time, Ranger swept ME up into his arms, and started walking towards the door, snatching a set of keys and his cellphone in the process. "What are you doing!?"

"Taking you to see a doctor."

"In my pajamas! And barefoot! Yuck, Ranger! Your bare foot too! You can't drive a car like that!"

"I have a doctor on staff, he's on the fourth floor."

"What?" I asked in a 'no freaking way' type of thing.

"Well, you can't do that! I've only known you for like, 12 hours! You have no say!"

"I know your mother and father, and they would both want you to get medical attention, but if they were in this situation, I know that your mother refuses help as well."

"Jerk! Let me down!" I had all rights to be mad. Bu, to be honest, it was hurting to fight, more than it was to walk.

"Nope." He said as the elevator doors binged open. He started down the hall, but suddenly stopped in front of one.

He turned, and pressed the button out side the door. He had a doorbell type thing. It buzzed inside. After a minute, the door opened, and a tall,grey haired man stood in the doorway, gun in hand. Suddenly, I felt very, very naked. Not only in the sense of clothes, but I didn't have my knife. Not only do I like knifes, but I can use one well, and I don't leave with out it. Except for school, they shun on you for that.

I guess that I over reacted a bit, because I wiggled in his arms a bit, trying to get free. "Stop." Ranger commanded.

I stopped.

The guy in the doorway looked at me, then up at Ranger expectantly. "She needs to see you. Stab wound, and bruised or cracked ribs."

"I take it she doesn't want to be here." The guy said.

"No, I don't. Now LET ME GO! I'm fine, perfectly, freaking fine!" I shouted at them.

"Just set her in there." the guy said, completely ignoring me..

Ranger walked past him into what looked like a living room, and lowered me onto the couch. "Maldiga lo." I mumbled. (Means Damn it, or Damn, and then it. Other wise it becomes damn be, thats not it thoughback out.)

When the doctor came back out, Ranger was watching me carefully, ready to grab me if I made a run from it.

"Hi..." He said, by way of asking my name.

"Jade." I gritted out. This position was NOT comfortable.

He frowned at my discomfort. "Here,sit up a little, it will feel better." He told me. I glared at Ranger, and pulled myself up farther so that I was resting against the end.

"Okay Jade, my name is Dr. Peterson. Just call me Phil."

"Whatever."

"Where does it hurt?" He asked like he would a child. I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow and stared at him like he was the child.

"Okay, well, lets see, the stab wound hurts a bit, and the two ribs hurt a little, but theres really no pain at all, I'm just peachy-keen, so if you'll excuse me, I'm sure you have other things to be doing right now." I said, my statement almost dripping with sarcasm.

"I will treat you like an adult, only when you act like one. Now, let me see them."

I glared at him for a second too, before lifting up the left side of my shirt.

"Looks like you taped yourself up."

"Yep." I started. "And before you say so, I know that your not supposed to because you get stiff, but I'll be fine with this." I started lowering my shirt back down, but his hand caught mine.

"We're going to have a look at he stab wound, and re-bandage you up."

I sighed again, and rolled my eyes. Ranger grabbed my wrists and pulled them farther away, then released them. I wasn't one for showing off body shapes. I'll admit, I was in good shape. I hit a changing point of sorts and got inot working out. Went to the wellness center after school some days and lifted some weights, mainly for endurence, and other days I'd grab a friend and go out into the trails in the woods to go running. Running was something I did purely for fun. It cleared your mind and it calmed you down. Hence liking it.

I closed my eyes and rested my head back, concentrating on the feel of his hands, keeping track of them. When 'Phil' got the wrapping off, I looked down. There they were, my perfectly tanned abs, six pack, all of the above. The only thing wrong with it, was that I had a large white piece of gauze, that had turned fully red, taped down to my left side. Phil started pulling off the tape, and I cringed. "Let me." I said, and continued pulling them off until I gently, removed the gauze.

"Ouch. How in the world did this happen?"

"Mr. Whyit didn't want to come in."

"No, I mean the fact that it managed to miss everything important,and go through mostly fat. It just brushed against, all your muscles here;" He said, gesturing to my stomach. "and went in beside it."

"Good, that means I'll heal quickly."

"Yes, that means you'll heal quickly. But, it doesn't mean that your ribs will. There only minorly buised, probably wont take more than two weeks to heal, but your going to be sore and achy for a while after that." He paused and looked at my stab wound again. "I think the only thing that I'm worrying about is this being infected."

"I cleaned it twice with alcohol after rinsing with warm water." I offered.

"Yes, well, to be sure, I want to run some tests." He stood and grabbed a box off the chair, and set it on the coffee table, then sat back down. "I need to draw some blood."

Nope not going to happened. I stiffened.

He started rummaging around the box for a needle. "Woah! Nope, sorry, not going to happen, I'm fine." I said, starting to get up.

RANGER'S POV

I caught her when she tried to hop up, and had to push her back into the couch. We had just unwrapped her, showing a perfectly tanned six pack, and abs. That shows that she can work out.

From the look on her face now, I'd say that she is scared of needles. She's scared of needles, but she can get stabbed with a knife and be fine. Dios.

When Phil turned towards her with the needle and vial, she screamed, I mean, full out, screamed. I heard her shout out '¡Ah dios, no, no, no, obtiene que lejos de mí!' quickly, then go back to screaming.

For the amount of pain her injuries would of caused, her whole body jerked from the couch as she tried to get up and free. She pulled from us, twisting away from up, and almost getting up. I went around to the other side of the couch so I was next to Phil. "Call Bobby, and tell him to get the hell over here." I told the Doctor.

He hurried off, and I heard him tell him to get over here now, then came back in. Thirty seconds later, the door opened, and Bobby, Phil's helper, came in. He took one look at Jade, and at the needle in Phil's hand, and went over to the other side of the couch. We both wrestled her arms down, and then got her legs down.

Phil came over and flipped her arm upside down, then stuck the needle in the junction of her elbow. She screamed louder, then stopped. She just, stopped and went total slack under our grasp. Her eyes had fluttered closed and she looked like she was sleeping, but we all knew that she hadn't fall asleep. She had passed out.

Phil took the needle out, and put it to safety for transport. then came back over to her. He kneeled down and wiped the tears off her cheek. "I'm so sorry Jade. If I had known you didn't like needdles that much, I would've sedated you. I really am sorry."

Half an hour later, she was bandaged up, and I was carrying her out of the apartment. She was still knocked out. I felt bad. I didn't mean to do that to her, to put her through that.

When I got to the elevator, still holding her, I pressed the button to key it up to the seventh floor. I had to rejust my grip on her quickly so that I didn't drop my keys.

When it opened, I turned sideways through the elevator doors, making sure not to hit her head on the frame, and stopped in the entryway. While juggling her, I pushed the key into the lock, and twisted it open. After pulling the key out and tossing it into the dish, I kicked the door shut.

I gently set her on the couch, and got out a spare blanket and pillow for her. I lifted her head off the couch, and slid the pillow under it, before laying the blanket over her. I quickly checked her position before heading off to my room, making sure that when she woke up, and while sleeping, she wouldn't be able to rehurt, or injure herself more.

Once back in my room, I shucked my clothes, and slipped on my silk boxers, and curled myself around Steph, who happened to be sound asleep in bed.

I had to smile at that...but it turned into a frown when I heard a whimper come from the couch. I waited in silence. There it was again. I quietly slipped from the bed, and padded out to the living room. She was sleeping fine...except for the slight shaking, and whimpering. There was nothing I could do to help, seen as she was unconscious rather than asleep. I frowned, walking back into the bedroom.

I fell asleep; still frowning.


	4. Chapter 4

It's not mine, and I'm not making any money...Jades mine though.

Chapter 4

JADES POV

I woke up, and had to choke of a scream as a large bolt of pain shot up my left side. I wrapped my arms around myself in a protective manner, willing the pain to stop.

I sat there as the pain coursed through me in constant streams, until I heard a door open. I quickly released myself, and hopped up, holding my breath. Hopping is not recommended when hurt.

A tall, muscular black man walked through the door. I had seen him before...last night, when...when they stuck me with a needle! Everything seemed to click into place, and I unconsciously took a step back. I didn't want to be anywhere near him if he had a needle, or, or, or, even if he didn't, he'd hold me down until they could!

I still had my eyes locked on him, and he seemed to have noticed me, because he had turned to me, and took a step closer. I stumbled back a bit, keeping a good distance between us.

"¡No venga más cerca! " I said, my breath coming in short uneven gasps. Pain was spreading slowly, through my whole side, black spots danced in front of my eyes and I swayed lightly.

He must of seen this because he called out for Ranger quickly, telling him that he was here, and to get out here.

No, I didn't want them out here, they'd stick me again, no...no no no. They can't do that again...but ow, the pain, it was almost unbearable.

"Jade!" Ranger barked, getting my attention. He was next to the evil guy.

When I moved a way again, more pain hit me, and I couldn't hold it in anymore. I let out a sob, clutching my side as the pain consumed me.

"Jade? Butterfly?" It was Steph, she came out of the bedroom, wiping her eyes that were still hooded with sleep. She stopped when she saw me. "Whats wrong baby?" She asked, truly concerned.

"I'm," I had to hold my self tighter. "I'm sorry." I choked out before the black dots covered my vision and I felt myself hit the ground.

Ranger's POV

When I came out, there she was, awake in the middle of the living room, "Jade!" I shouted at her, getting her attention.

Her eyes flew to me, and she moved away a bit, then stopped as a look of pain crossed her face. She had her teeth clenched, but suddenly, she let out a loud sob, gasping for air and clutching her side.

Now Steph came out, still half asleep, calling out for her. She called her Butterfly.

"Whats wrong baby?" She asked concerned.

"I'm," She swallowed, tightening her grip on herself. "I'm sorry." She choked out, then her whole body just crumpled to the ground.

"Jade!" Steph called, running over to her.

Me and Bobby followed after quickly, kneeling down beside her.

"Ranger! You have a lot of explaining to do! What the hell just happened and why is she sorry?!" She shouted, standing hand on hips in front of me.

"I don't know what happened, but I assume she's sorry for the same reason I am. For not telling you when I found out."

"Found out what!?"

I pulled the hem of her shirt up a bit, reveling the bandage. I felt her kneel down next to me with a gasp. "My god, what happened to her?"

She ran her hand across the blood that showed through the gauze, and the extra padding her used to wrap her ribs.

"Apparently while you were at Mr. Whyit's house, she got stabbed in the stomach, and kicked in the ribs. She'll be fine though, I brought her to the doctor here, he's going to run some blood tests, but he's pretty sure that she'll be fine."

"WHAT!!!" She screamed at me, then stopped and looked at me. "Oh my god, Ranger, you didn't." She whined. "You drew blood without sedating her."

"Yes, but I am regretting it. Believe me Steph, if I knew that was going to happen, I would not have done it with out putting her to sleep first. You going to explain that to me?"

"No, I'm not, if you want to know, I'm going to let Jade tell you on her own time."

JADE'S POV

I jerked away on something soft, wrapped in warm material. My throat was dry, and my body ached, but I sat up fully, and ignored the huge bolt of pain I felt, and just flipped the covers off. The room was Ranger's, so being the awesomely smart detective I am, I decided that it was Ranger's bed, I was in, after all, I was looking at it from a different perspective.

As I stood up, I felt that I was in something different then when I left. It was large, and black, and looked suspiciously like Ranger's. I sighed. Shit.

I pulled it as far over my butt as possible, making it down to my knees, and prepared to shout. "MOM!"

After about ten seconds, the door flung open, and bounced off the wall, slamming itself shut. "What is it? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, if you call waking up in different clothes good! What in the hell is going on?"

She sighed. "I'm glad your okay, because frankly, I'm pissed."

I cringed. She had totally dodged my question. "I meant to tell you, I just didn't want you to go all protective on me."

"I wouldn't of. I have been in your position, and I hate when people take charge of me, I really do hate it. I wish you felt that you could've told me rather than Ranger."

"Oh, believe me, I didn't. He just knew. Before we started the movie, he asked if I was going to tell you." I rolled my eyes. "I think I know what you mean about ESP, but more likely, it was the cringing, and bloody medical supplies."

She laughed.

TEN MINUTES LATER me and Steph were on the couch, and we had all of my nail polishes out. She had popped in a chick flick, and since Ranger wasn't due back until noon, we were in for a girly time.

I had changed into my own clothes, tank-top and pants, and was grabbing the rest of the supplies out on the coffee table. Stickers, manicure correctors, colors, and nail polish remover. Steph started the movie, and we started painting each others nails.

By the end of the movie, Steph was sniffling, and I was finishing her last thumb. It had a dark blue coat of paint, and an orange heart on it, while the other thumb had an orange coat, and a dark blue heart. I had done that for all her fingers and toes, painting back and forth, contrasting colors. She had randomly painted colors and designs in all of mine, and I was lookin' pretty funky. I smiled as I admired our art work.

"Well that was fun." I said bluntly.

"Yeah, now I have to go run a search quickly, I'll probably be back after Ranger, so be good, and don't leave the apartment."

"Okay." I said on a solute.

"Be good." She warned again as she left.

I nodded. The door had barely finished clicking shut when I was up and grabbing my laptop. I opened it up, and opened Windows Media Player. I scooted across the floor, keeping my side strait, until I got to the tv. I found the speakers wire, and traced it down to where it connected to a box that would make it so you could plug in more things. I unplugged the speakers, and plugged it into my laptop. When I pushed play on my laptop, Natasha Bedingfield Silent Movie blasted through the speakers.

We're in a picture black and white

Who took the light out of my life

When you, gave in

We're playing out of different roles

We should be wanting the same goals

Listening, forgiving

Oh, why can't we communicate

When the main feature is just beginning

In the silent movie there's no talking

You're just an actor

So break into my story

Take it over

Paint me with colour

Everybody's speaking, but you don't know what they're saying

You're jus guessing meanings

Interpreting emotion through a window that is broken

We're jus testing feelings

Oh, why can't we communicate

When the main feature is just begining

In the silent movie there's no talking

You're just an actor

So break into my story

Take it over

Paint me with colour

Step into the movie, you can be my leading man

Break into the silence, so your heart can understand

Step into the movie, we could walk along the sand

Let me stand beside you, put ur life into my hand

Don't you know you love me, like you never love yourself

Don't you know you love me, like you never love yourself

Don't you know you love me, like you never love yourself

Don't you know you love me, like you never love yourself

In the silent movie there's no talking

You're just an actor

So break into my story

Take it over

Paint me with colour

In the silent movie there's no talking

You're just an actor

So break into my story

Take it over

Paint me with colour

Silent Movie By:Natasha Bedingfield

I had already hacked into their internet, and was typing in the address to an online translator. See, Mom had me learning sign language before I could speak English, so sign language is like a second language, but after that, I learned Spanish at the same time as English, making me just as good at Spanish as I am at English.

I typed in a few words, playing around with the two languages (Spanish and English) then started writing a journal entry in both languages, switching on and off of each.

Dear journal,

So, this is my first entry, I'm going to try and write an entry every night, and in several languages. Mostly Español y inglés. So, the only thing I can think about writing, getting off my chest is that I don't trust Ranger or Bobby, or that other guy, Phil, the doctor. They shad a agujas I mean, I know that they didn't know, but I knew, and I was scared. Like reliving that night all over again. I was hanging out with some friends, and two of them started fighting. I got in to break it up, one of the guys, Mike, who I didn't like very much, had a needle. He stuck me with it, and then injected it into me. I remember my visión getting indistinto, and then some ones hands on me, then agua. Or at least it's what I told everyone. Cold agua surrounding me. I tried to swim, but I couldn't. I couldn't move, couldn't breath right either. Each time I took a breath my throat filled up with dirty water. Pond water, I guessed, I mean, we were near a pond, and it would make sense. Right?

I was sinking, faster than I could control, and I remember thinking 'this is it'. It was my end, when I'd die, when I'd be one less person on the earth, but one more missing persons. Black filled my vision, and the next thing I knew, I was in a hospital with tubes and wires coming out of me. I was bruised up, they assumed it was because of the two guys fighting. It wasn't, but...who cares, maybe I'll write that in here, maybe I wont, not safe, people hack easy, read things open cosas up on other peoples computer easily. That was the...two days that changed my opinion on needles and swimming.

I was taken out of thought when the front door opened. I looked up, like a deer in the headlights, staring wide eyed at the archway, waiting for whomever it was to come into view. A minute later, Ranger walked through, and over towards me, making me jump. I quickly shut my laptop, and pulled away from him, keeping distance between us. Since the laptop was shut, the music had stopped, and a eery sense of quiet set between us. He raised his hands slowly, bringing them up in a 'I'm not going to hurt you' type of way. I backed away farther.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I don't want anything." He scanned the room quickly, noting all the nail polish, chips, soda's, and my laptop, then the wire from it to behind the tv. "Wheres Steph?"

"She's running some searches, said she'd be back soon after you."

He nodded slowly, relaxing his stance. I didn't move, for fear of him pulling out a needle and stabbing me with it, or sedating me, or hitting me.

"I think she did that on purpose. We need to talk."

"Why?" I retorted. I sounded like a three year old, why, why, why, why, why.

"Because we are both a big part of Stephanie's life, and we need to get along, so let's talk this out."

"Talk what out? I've only known you for TWO days!"

"One, why you got as far away from me as humanly possible when I entered, and two, why you react that way to needles."

I didn't speak, but did notice that I was all the way against the wall away from him.

"What if I don't want to talk, or if I don't want to tell you."

He paused, seemingly thinking. "I guess you don't have to, I can't and wont force you too, but I would like to talk to you. At least answer why you back away. Like you said, we've only known each other two days."

"In the little time we did have, I had gained to trust you, mostly based on my mom talking about you, but then you bring me to the doctor against my will, and draw blood? That crossed the line, you lost my trust."

"I'm sorry you feel that I did something to betray your trust, but you still didn't answer my question. Why are you so afraid of me?" He asked, refraining the question a bit.

I didn't know if I could answer that with anything other than 'you stuck me with a needle' but then he'd ask why that bothered me so much, and so on until I had spilt my guts. I wasn't up for that.

He raised his eyebrows. "I'm going to get a drink." I said in a quiet tone, walking by him, but still keeping stuff between us.

Luckily, he didn't follow me to the kitchen, or try and stop me, so I quickly grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, and uncapped it, taking a long pull out of it.

Walking back into the room, I froze. Ranger had my laptop open, and was reading what ever was on the screen at the time, that just so happened to be my journal entry. "No!" I shouted, going over and shutting the lid, and taking it from him. I got far enough away, and set it on the coffee table. I opened it up, saved, and did the three fingered solute (CTR-ALT-DELETE) to bring up several options. I logged out this way, because I had rigged it so that if you signed out the right way (under the start menu), it was a different password. Harder to hack into.

"What were you doing on my laptop?" I asked, furious as I looked up at him, from my now closed laptop.

"What was that you were writing?" He countered.

"A journal entry, but you didn't answer my question."

"I was curious as to what you were writing."

"It's none of your business, don't ever touch my laptop again. It's personal property that I worked hard for."

"You bought that?"

"Yes."

He seemed to think about that, looking at the laptop in the mean time. By now I had stood up, and was standing, one arm around my side, the other propped upon my hip, a well known defensive pose.

"How did you get the money for it?"

"I worked you big baboon! How the hell else?! It's not like I hacked into the bank and stole money! God, you'd think I was raised by a pack of rabid dogs, like I have no morals! But excuse me, I have very strong morals, and robbing a bank is not something I'd do! You don't know me, so don't judge me until you do!" By the time I was done, I was panting with rage. I was pissed that he had come to assumptions, but more that he came to them after invading my privacy. It didn't help that I didn't trust of like him.

"I never judged you." He said harshly. "Now I get that you don't trust me, but you need to let me gain that trust, because we are both in your mothers life, and we don't want to make her chose sides." He said, giving me a sense of dejavou. (Sorry, I can't spell it)

"You already said that."

"Obviously you didn't understand then, or we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"What do you want from me! What do you want me to tell you, huh? You want me to just trust you? To just, let you have my trust again!?"

"I want you to stop yelling. And no, I don't expect you to just give me trust back. But it'd be nice to know how I lost it in the first place."

I stared at him for a beat. He's either knows what and is pushing my buttons, or is stupid. "You know what." I said as calmly as possible.

There was a pause. "If I do, then why would that cause me to loose your trust?"

"You'll have to figure that one out."

He looked like he was sighing internally, then spoke. "Fine. At least tell me why you reacted that way to the needle."

It was my turn to pause. "Bad experience."

"You-" He was cut off by the sound of the door opening.

"Hello?! Jade!? Ranger, oh, hey." She said, walking into the room, and stopping.

I looked over to her.

She coughed lightly. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No." I said at the same time as Ranger said "Yes."

She looked from me to him, to me, to him, then at her feet, and turned around. "I'll bring pizza back." She called over her shoulder before leaving.

I sighed. "Fine, lets work this out, but only because I want the pizza."

His lips twitched lightly and I glared at him. "Prick." I mumbled.

"We'll go back and forth, one question for another. You can start."

I bit my lip. "How did you know I was hurt? I mean, you didn't know me well enough to know what was normal behavior and what was not."

He nodded to the couch before speaking. "Sit." I sat.

"First it was the fact that you left your bloody shirt in the hamper. Also, there was blood smudges across the counter, some on the floor, and then around the shower drain." I cringed.

"Sorry about the mess."

He waved it off. "Not a big deal.

"Then, I noticed how stiff you were at the table, the way you were sitting didn't look comfortable, and instead of moving like it was, you moved like it hurt, cringing, and grimacing every time you moved." He shrugged.

"My turn." He told me. "What happened to you in the past that made you so afraid of needles?"

I turned my head towards him, looking him strait in the eye. Why had he asked me this? So soon. I swallowed.

"It was a day two or three years ago. I was out with a few friends. Leo, and then Mike. Mike wasn't really a good friend of mine, but Leo was. They had gotten into the fight, and were pushing and shoving each other around. I don't even remember what it was about, but I got up and got between them, holding them back. I guess I hadn't noticed the needle, because the next thing I knew, there was a sharp pain in my thigh, and my vision quickly got blurry." I looked away. "Then, I was tossed into cold water, probably the pond near where we were. When everything went black, I woke up in a hospital."

When I turned back to him, he was watching me. "Why are you lying?"

I felt my eyes widen. "What?" I asked, in an innocent way. He couldn't of caught that.

"You looked away when you said that you were tossed into the water next, what are you lying about?"

"Thats too many questions, it's my turn."

He sighed lightly and nodded.

"Why do you care? I mean, weather I'm hurt or not, or if I'm lying?"

"Because I care about your mother, and your her daughter." He simply replied.

"What really happened between the time of being punctured and waking up in the hospital?"

I watched him. I didn't move or respond. How do you say that your a lab freak, that you were tested on and possibly 'upgraded'?

**I'll post the next, god knows when, but I will try and get it out soon. I purposely left it as a bit of a cliff hanger. I have most of this ready, as in I know what is going to happen, and when. Beware, I write fast paced stories, just keep in mind that this is the second day Jade has known Ranger, and it is almost lunch. :)**

**R&R **

**Peanut16**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I sat there, staring at him, waiting for something, anything really. Anything that would make me not have to answer this question. Anything that would make me not have to explain what happened, to keep the shadows at sea, not bring them into port as fresh burns.

Some people might think, 'what could possibly happen in two days that would change your life? Bring back so called pain?' , others might assume that it was sexual, or physical. No, not really mental either, unless you consider being 'upgraded' physical or mental. I guess you wouldn't call it 'upgraded' more like changed.

That day, before being thrown into the water, I was taken somewhere. I don't know where, I don't know why, I only know, in flashes, that they did something to make me better, different, yet still kept me human. I have noticed that since then, all my grades have come up, I can remember things better, and I find things easy. See, I think that they did something to my head to make me different, in a way, they 'upgraded' me. Maybe they made it so I could learn faster, retain more knowledge, or maybe I'm just imagining it all, but I'm pretty sure they did something, because I can recite the nutrition facts from the side of the shake and bake chicken boxes.

Thats _so_ not normal.

But heres the big slammer.

Why? Why me? Why would they do that to anyone? And why? Why why why why why?!

"Jade?"

"Huh? Oh, um, I don't," I paused sighing. "I don't want to talk about it."

Apparently it had been a while, because before Ranger could reply, the door opened and I heard Steph yell out. "I come bearing gifts of pizza!"

I smiled slightly at the distraction and stood up, avoiding any ways that would hurt my ribs.

Pizza. Yum.

11393

I woke up the next morning on the couch, and someone was near me, I could feel it. I took in some air through my nose, and stiffened. It was Ranger, I could smell his shower gel. "What do you want?" I whispered horsely.

"Are you okay?" He responded.

I opened my eyes, momentarely blinded by the light from behind him. My eyes shut again, and I took a deep breath and used my hand to sheild the light from my eyes when I opened them.

"Yeah, why?"

He stared at me blankly. "You were having a nightmare."

I mimocked his expression, one of utter confusion. "I was?"

_Ranger's POV_

She stared at me like I had two heads. "I was?"

_Of course you were!, _I wanted to yell at her. I came out here because I heard her yelling and crying. She was on the couch, thrashing around holding her head and thigh. I had tried calling her name quietly, and tapping her on the shoulder, hell, I even tried soothing her by whispering in spanish and rubbing her back. Nothing had worked, I was out here for at least fifteen minutes, and suddenly, she stopped, she was still sobbing, and she had curled herself up into the fetal position, but she had stopped thrashing and yelling.

She whimpered some more, and after no more than five minutes, she woke up. Of course she tried to hide that by keeping her eyes closed, but it didn't work. Her breathing became more erratic after she sniffed in some air, and she was no longer moving _at all_.

"You don't remember anything?" I asked in disbelief. I had helped Steph through the few that she got after Ramirez, the slayer, Cone, and Scrog, and through them, she always remembered them. Thats what she hated the most, knowing what she was dreaming of and not being able to wake up.

She looked at me wide eyed and shook her head.

We were silent for a minute, both stuck in our own world.

She was the first to break the silence. "I'm going to go now." She replied, standing up and walking towards the door.

"Where?"

She turned back to me. "I don't know yet. Anywhere." She must not have notice that she was still in pajamas until now, because she looked down, came back over and grabbed some clothes out of her bag, then stalked off through me and Steph's room.

I took the time to call the control room. Right now the best thing for me to do to gain her trust, was to give her a little bit more leash. "Lester here." He answered.

"I need you to take Jade out."

"Where?" He asked.

"Anywhere she wants. She's feeling a bit unsecure right now, and I need her to relax if she's going to trust me at all. Ask her how she got hurt."

"What? Is she okay?" He sounded a bit panicked.

"She'll be okay, but have her explain it to you. Gotta go."

"Later." He said before I clicked it shut.

She reamerged from the bedroom in a pair of shorts and a stretchy t-shirt. She had a pair of sneakers on as well, along with holding her pajama pants and top.

"You can go out where ever you want, just don't loose Lester."

She dropped her clothes in her bag and looked up at me. "Your not going to try and stop me?" She questioned.

I noted that she said _try _and stop her.

"No. Lester will bring you where ever you want."

_For now,_ I silently added. I wasn't going to tell her that if the stalker made even the slightest attempt at her or her mom, then I'd ship them off to the safe house in Maine without second thought. I'd go with Lester, Bobby and Tank of course.

A few minutes of silence later, Lester entered in standard RangeMan uniform. Jade quickly stepped through the open door and into the elevator, pushing the close button, causing it to shut before Lester was in it. "Go!" I shouted at him. He turned and darted through the fire escaped stairway, and I could hear him hopping over steps.

_Jade's POV_

When the elevator dinged open, I stepped out, and was almost instantly tackled by a warm chest. I was still standing, but there were large warm arms wrapped around my arms, making it impossible to move. Since my arms were out of the question, I slammed my head back into his, causing his grip to loosen. I quickly pulled out of his grasp and twisted around, taking a steading breath.

"Fuck that hurt."

"No shit." I gasped out. "Don't do that again."

Five minutes later, we were both securely locked in an SUV and on our way out of the RangeMan garage. "So, first things first, you get to explain to me how you got hurt."

"At the take down."I replied easily.

"Okay, but what is injured? How are you hurt?"

Instead of responding, I just told him to go to the nearest computer shop. I needed a new toy for my computer, and I wanted to get off the subject...but thats okay, what ever works.

He watched me for me a couple seconds extra, and then went back to watching the road. I was thankful taht he had stopped the questions, for now at least.

11393

_Sorry it was so short, but oh my god, I'm so nervous. I can't write much bbecause I'm practicing for a duet I'm doing tomorrow, and I'm VERY nervous. :):) R&R_

_Peanut16_


	6. Chapter 6

Nearly half an hour later, I was inside and walking around a computer shop. I was relieved that he had dropped the subject though. I stopped in front of a rack of computer programs. I glimpsed over some of them, like Adobe PhotoShop CS2, and Microsoft Word. I already had those; I was looking for something…something new.

There was nothing that I could think of program wise that I would need, I mean, I had CS2 for banners and pictures and all that and Microsoft Word for writing, and editing. I used Edit Pad classic for a little bit of web code, it was the best program to use until you actually uploaded it onto a server, then I'd copy paste it.

I found myself in the section of the store with the actual technology. Memory chips for laptops and regular desk tops, hard drives, cases, keyboards, mouse's, extra wires for internet connection and jump drive extenders. I flipped through the padded baggies, reading the labels. They said a few things, what they would run on, what they were, and how much space it would add. I smiled when I found one that I could add to my laptop. It was an Area-51, with a 15.4" Wide Screen LCD, 256MB graphics, 667 MHz DDR2 Memory, 250MB of Storage, and a DVD Player, with a Saucer Silver Colored body.

The chip I could (though most people don't) add into it. I'd remove the case, and pull apart the computer, and insert the memory chip. It would make it so that my laptop could hold more stuff, ultimately making it faster with the new free space. I was pretty excited.

I switched my gaze towards Lester. He was watching me, a curious expression on his face as I watched him. I turned away, and headed to the cash register to pay. I had a wad of cash in my pocket, and even more in my savings account thanks to babysitting, chores, and random little jobs I did for other people, like mowing laws, water gardens, weeding, and sometimes even fixing computers. I had worked for the money that I had, and I felt no guilt spending it either.

With my new purchase in hand, I turned once again to look for Lester…to find him gone. I looked around, stepped foreword, and finally went to turn around to ask the register guy where he had gone, and bumped into him. Lester had just materialized behind me.

I yelped and jumped back, regretting it as pain ripped through my side. I doubled over, holding my side in agony. Lester quickly scooped me up, and walked to the car, seating me in the passengers' seat, and buckling me, carefully avoiding touching me.

I sat still, not moving, and barely breathing for close to five minutes before the pain dwindled down to a barable level. I inhaled carefully, and sat up a little straighter.

"You okay?" Lester asked, looking over at me.

"Yes."

"You going to tell me more about how you got hurt?"

"No."

"Jade, after that, I need something more, come on."

I stayed silent.

"How about if I take you out to breakfast? You talk to me, I'll feed the hungry beast?"

I bit my lip. I _was _hungry, I mean, I am my mother's daughter.

"Deal." I finally said.

He smiled a little and nodded. At the next light, he switched directions, and drove down a little street, until he pulled up a small diner.

We both got out, and I tucked my back under the seat, and made sure that Lester locked the SUV before following him in.

He picked the booth at the back, and settled down, back to the wall. I sat on the other side with a small sigh, and a quick glance around the place.

"So, give me details on what happened at Mr. Whyit's house. I remember you going in before us and up the stairs with a knife, and a thud, but what happened?"

And I did, I explained it for the second time, all about getting hit…I even decided to tell him about the rags under the shirt because I thought it was clever.

He nodded when I was done. "Okay, question two, how did you learn all the stuff about hacking, and computers?"

"Well mostly I learned from books and the Internet, but I also learned a lot from one of my buddies, Josh. He's cool, he helped me hack…but the web design part is on my own, from sources available."

"Cool, is Josh the one who got you into computers?"

"No, I don't realy know who it was, but I guess just doing what I had to do on computers in everyday life made me interested in them, how they worked, how you could work your way thorugh the system. It fascinated me."

"Seems resonable. How long have you been working with them, you said you had to do stuff on them, do you mean homework, or what?"

"Yeah, we had homework too, but I've been interested in computers since I was six. It's been eight years, and I'm still very interested in them. But...yeah, eight years or so."

"Impressive, especially since one of the few things I can do on a computer is check e-mail. I can run searches and stuff like that, but I couldn't design a webpage, or get into anything. I wouldn't even know where to begin."

I shrugged. "You have some harder questiones for me? These are just silly." I said with a small smile.

"Okay, in the car on the way back from Perry's house, when we stopped, you screamed, it wasn't because you were startled, what was the real reason?"

I shrugged "Simple, because when we stopped quickly, I wasn't expecting it and the seat belt jabbed into my stomach, it hurt, I screamed, next question."

He watched me for a second. "How did it go with Phil?"

I froze. "How did you know about me seeing Phil?" I asked him.

Control room, I've been stuck in there a few times this week, including you being carried there, and then back, just the second time you were passed out. What happened in there, and how did it go?"

"Horribly, and not much." I responded.

"How did not much happen if it went horribly?"

I didn't really know what to say. It's not like everyday you meet some one who is terrified of needles. "What do you want me to say, it's a really long story."

"I've got time. Start from the beginning."

I sighed and waved the waiter over. I ordered another large coke, and with another sigh, started. "It was along time ago, I was hanging out with some friends at a local pond. It was where we always hung out. I was 13, it was last June I believe, and two of my friends, Leo and Mike, got in a fight. They were shoving each other around like crazy people, shouting and yelling about nothing in particular, god, I don't even remember what they were fighting about, but they were, and I got between them to stop it. I remember seeing a flash of something silver, and then a jolt of pain in my thigh. When I looked down, there was a needle stuck in my thigh. I had a feeling the needle was ment for Leo, not me, but Mike didn't seem to care. My vision was getting blurry, quick, and I remember Leo trying to help and mike decking him, knocking him out cold. Then Mike lifted me up, and I was out.

"When I woke up I was in some sort of room, it was like a testing facility, dark and cold." I shivered at the memory, and looked down, sipping my coke before continuing. "From then on, I only remember flashes, more needles, pain, they were dng something to me, and I didn't know what. I guess I shouldn't say they, I mean, if there were more than just one person, then they all looked exactly the same. I think they were the same.." I sdrifted off, wrinkling my nose. The waiter stopped by and gave me the new one and took the now empty other one. I took another drink. " Then he or they, beat me. My guess was so that nobody would even notice the marks on the back of my head.

"Anyway, when I came too the next time, it was because I was being tossed into something cold and wet, I couldn't swim very well because of all the setatives I had been given, and I ached everywhere. So, I started sinking, I mean, I never did float, so, I panicked, I couldn't find any sort of calm state at this point, I was _sinking_ and I couldn't keep myself up, I can't swim, and so, I shut down, I obviously didn't die, but I shut down, let go, gave up, however you want to say it. I let myself sink, but it didn't exactly work, I couldn't breath, I had held my breath as long as possible, but...the next thing I knew, I was being lifted out of the water. Some dude was hiking by. He had stopped to rest, and saw me in there. I passed out again, and woke up in the hospital." I looked up with a shrug.

"Okay," He said. "But what happened at Phil's?"

"Since Ranger decided that I needed to see a doctor, he brought me down there. The doctor checked out my ribs and decided that he had to make sure that there were no infections, so, he got out a needle, and was going to draw blood. Since that incident though, I'm terrified of needles and water. I mean, theres the scared, and then theres me. I screamed until I passed out."

"You say that like it's normal." He said.

"Well, it kind of is. I have to have shots, remember? I'm still a minor, and there are som any diseases that I have to get shots for. The first time, I passed out, they marked it on my record. They would sedate me with gingerale before my shots, and after my next shot, they thought, 'hey, she probably grew out of it' nope. I screamed until I passed out. It kind of is normal now." I said with another shrug.

"You tell Ranger or Steph any of that?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Only some of it, and what I did tell was...abbriviated. Much less detailed. Please don't tell them."

"I wont, this is between us, but you need to tell them, but if something comes up, and I even think that it is relavent, then I will tell them, but I think that you should tell them. Steph cares for you, and Ranger, he's trying to gain your trust, be nice."

"I'm trying, but he's not very easy to be nice too. I want to hate him, to...I don't know, I just, I don't want to like him. He's always right, he sees through everything I try and pull, calls my lies."

He smiled. "He does that. Ranger knows everything."

11393

When we pulled back into RangeMan, I grabbed my purchase from under the seat, and got out, heading towards the elevator. Lester followed, and got me up to the seventh floor, making sure that Ranger knew that we were back before leaving.

"Feel better?"

I nodded. "Yep."

He glanced towards the bag. "What did you get?"

"Memory for my laptop."

He looked at me blankly. "How are you going to get that in there?"

"Take it apart, replace this with the old one. The other one was good, but this one is better, it should work."

He nodded. Seeming to understand.

Okay...

I turned on heal and headed to the living room, looking for my laptop. It was on the coffee table, but when I opened it, it had a different background. I smiled. He had tried to get into it, or have someone else get into it. See, by rigging it to have that trick, logging out the way I did, It made it so if you logged in wrong, even if it was wrong, it would log into a page. This page had a background featuring Jensen ackles, and it was black. My normal one had a black background, with nothing else on it, just some grey swirls. From this screen there weren't many ways to get back to the log in screen. The regular, Start-log out, wouldn't work, I made it say there was an error, and it wouldn't. The only way I knew to log out from here, was to do the control-alt-delete, and then restart. You couldn't log out from it. I asked for a passwaord, and I typed it in quickly, then waited for it ot get to the log in page, and logged into my regular page. Now, I shut it all the way down, and shook my head.

I flipped it upside down, and examined the screws that held the case together. I needed a philips head screw driver.

"Hey Ranger?!"

He walked in. "Yeah?"

"Since you tried to dig through my laptop when I said not to, would you happen to know where a philips head screw driver is would you?"

He paused. "I'll call Binkie up."

I smiled slghtly. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I heard talking, then Ranger shut the door, and handed me a small box. When I opened it, I found a bunch of different tools. I selected a few different sizes, an tried them until I had the right size, then unscrew it, and pulle the bottom off. I put the screw drivers away, and set it aside, and then set myself on floor, laptop in front of me. I started desembling everything, carefully unpluggin thick wires that were an inch and a half wide, and setting them aside. Finally, I had the memory out, and I grabbed the small bag with the new one, and slid it in it's place, then slowely started clicking the other chips, graphics, and sound, along with the hard drive, back into place. When I was sure everything was wired right, and that it would work, I placed the cover over it, and grabbedt he small tool kit again. Taking out the proper tool , I tightened the screw, and put the kit aside.

I opened my laptop up on the coffee table, and wated for it to turn on, then typed i nthe password, and the backup password, then while it was opening, did a key combination. It loaded up my special background (black with grey swirls) and I smiled. I right clicked on My Computer and clicked on properties, then flipped through the tabs, reading through the little notes. The system it ran, (Windows Vista) who it was registered to, (Jade Iris Plum) and a few minor details that I didn't really care about.

I logged back off, and shut the lid once again, but finally stood up and headed toward the kitchen with the old memry chip in the little bag, and the big bag in hand. I tossed away the big bag, and went back to my duffle, and put the chip in it.

With the tool kit in hand, I found Ranger in his office, typing away at his computer.

"Why are you up here?" I asked. I had this nagging feeling that he wasn't normally up here doing paperwork. I knew he had an office.

"Because I had to catch up on paper work, and I'd rather do it from here, and not leave you alone, than down there and leave you here alone."

"What, you don't trust me not to burn it down or something."

His eyes crinkled. "That too, but it's more of a 'your hurt' type of thing."

"Oh."

"Yeah, Oh."

"Well, Where whould I put this?"

"Binkie will be up in five to get it." He told me, picking up his phone. "Need you to come get the kit. Yep. Later." and he hung up. I shook my head and started towards the front door. As promised, five minutes later, a big guy, dressed like all the other RangeMan, stepped in. I handed it to him, and he soundlessly nodded and walked back into the elevator.

Well that went well.

11393

The rest of the day flew by in a wave of pain killers. I had decided to take the pain pills that I was supposed to take yesterday, and earlier, now, but only one dose. It made me woozy and caused me to walk into walls. I stumbled into the kitchen, ramming into the counter in the process. I grunted lightly. I was going to get a drink enitially, but I just sighed and yawned and slid down the counter to the floor.

"Hey butterfly..." "Jade? Are you okay?" Steph asked concered as she walked out. She had came home earlier while I was watching a movie. Apparently she had been out catching skips, so when she came home, she smelt funky. She quickly took a shower of course.

"Mmm." I mumbled. "I'm fine, just tirrreedd." I yawned.

"Come on." She said, trying to lift me up. "Ranger!" I heard her call out. "I need some help out here."

A couple second later Ranger entered.

_Ranger's POV_

I walked out to find Steph standing by Jade who was slouched against the bottom of the counter. Steph was trying to pick her up, and sadly, failing quite miserably. I walked over and knelt down, carefully cradeling her in my arms, and walked with her to the couch. Steph quickly pulled her steph off of the couch, and laid the pillow on the arm rest, and pulled the blanket back as I set her down.

Steph pulled the blanket over her, and kissed her head. "Night butterfly." She whispered and started heading away.

I checked her blanket, and mumbled 'good night' quietly.

I headed to the bed, and slid in behind Steph after stripping down to my boxers.

_Jade's POV_

Ugh. I shouldn't have gotten up. I was now, standing in front of who I was told to be my fathers house, and I was seriosly doubting weather or not I actually wanted to go in there, I mean, I had gotten up, showered, applied lip gloss, and pulled my hair into a pony tail, and was still standing here doubting myself.

I pulled up some courage when Mom squeezed my shoulder, and knocked on the door. It opened seconds later.

_Hehe, I'm so evil. Don't owrry, I wont wait that long before posting the next chapter!:):)_

_Peanut16_


	7. Chapter 7

aI stood stock still. My eyes were locked with the guy behind the door. Someone who Mom had described as Morelli.

"Stephanie." He said, still not looking away. When he finally looked away from me, he looked up at Stephanie. "Whos this?"

I felt her take a deep breath. "Joe, meet Jade. Jade, meet your father."

"Yo." I mumbled.

"Come on in. We need to talk." He said, the last part directed at Steph. I felt her nod behind me.

He led us in and I sat on the couch. I saw him grabe her arm and drag her out of the room to talk.

I could catch a few words of him talking to her, and suprising enough he wasn't angry or mad...he just sounded hurt.

A few minutes later, they returned in. Joe sat down next to me, but keeping a bit of space between us. "So Jade, how old are you?"

"14." I responded.

"14." He repeated as a mumble, then looked up at Steph. "You had her after the incdent behind the eclair case?"

I looked over at Steph. She nodded.

"You didn't tell me." He stated.

"No, and I'm sorry, but I wouldn't change that for the life of me. I didn't think you'd care if I told you, and I couldn't deal with the rejection. I sent her somewhere safe, and she's been raised mostly with a friend. I help pay, and I visit as often as possible." She did too.

He took a calmin breath before looking back at me. He shrugged lightly as if he seemed at a loss for words. I spoke first, in a quiet voice that held uthority. "Would you please stop saying 'the incident' behind the eclair case as if it was something you wish didn't happen."

His eyes jerked to mine. "I'm sorry, I don't wish it didn't happen, but..." He sighed.

"Yeah, you do regret it." I stood.

"It was nice to meet you Detective Morelli, but I really need to be getting back." _'Cause I need some advil._ I silently added.

I tried to hide the reaction I had to the pain as I stood but I involentarily felt my face cringe up, as I grunted lightly.

"Are you hurt?" Joe asked, standing.

I straightened back out, talking with little commitment, and no air. "I'm fine, but I need to go." I started to move away.

I felt his hand on my wrist and he pulled me back. Before I had time to react, he pulled up my shirt, to reveal the bandage. I slapped his hand away. "What happened?" He growled, his eyes dancing towards Steph's.

"It was my fault, I followed a skip and he tricked me."

His eyes darkened. "She's hurt because of you and that stupid fucking job of yours Stephanie. You should've just quit when you had the chance, and come marry me. Then Jade would have a proper home, and -"

"Shut up." I growled, stepping between Mom and Morelli in a defensive manner. I knew he wouldn't hit her, but it was purely a protective gesture. "We're leaving detective."

With that, I grabbed Steph's hand, and dragged her out of the house. She regained herself and got in the drivers side, giving the car gas and pulling away.

After an...okay lunch at McDonalds, Mom dragged me out shopping. This was, what I assumed, how she got into denial, or, how she delt with it. "Mom, Steph, why are we going shopping."

"Because," She said bluntly. "I'm avoiding the situation, now, whats your favorite color?"

"Blue." I answered.

"Great, blue brings out your eyes."

"Why are you voiding it?" I asked.

"Because he's an ass, so lets move on. Skirts or shorts?"

"Shorts." I responded. "If you think he's an ass, why did you date him?"

"Because he represented the burg. T-shirts or tank tops?"

"Tank tops. But you were never burg, you always said you were independant."

"Yes, but it doesn't mean that I didn't care what they thought. Stretchy or loose?"

"Stretchy." I mumbled as I mulled over what she had said.

Half an hour later, she had me in a dressing room with at least ten different tops and six different bottoms. I was forced to try them all on, and sort them into what I liked, and what I didn't, along with weather it fit or not. By the time we were done with shopping completely, we both had bags of new clothes. She had even dragged me into victoria secret, where she bought me and herself some under garmets.

As we walked into the apartment, I dumped a load of bags on the couh and headed for the kitchen. "Hey Steph?"

"Yeah?" She answered walking into kitchen.

"Wheres the advil?"

She opened a cabinet next to the fridge, and pulled out the large bottle of ibuerophen.

"Ahh." I said, taking it from her. I twisted open and pulled out two, then placed the bottle back in the cabinet and headed over to the sink. "Where are the glasses?"

She went over to another cabinet, opened it and pulled out two glasses. She handed one to me and I filled it with tap water. She went to the fridge and filled her with what looked like orange juice.

I swallowed both tablets and finished off the glass of water before heading out to the living room to get onto my laptop.

I sat on the couch with it in my lap, and just broused the web, checking my e-mails and updating my TCGs.

When I opened an e-mail, I froze.

_Jade,_

_I sent you some pictures, I think you'll like them. They're quite flattering._

_He won' protect you, you know. He's not going to keep you safe from me. I'm not going to hurt you anyway. I just need to see if the experiment worked, it's been a full year now, and I want to see how your doing and how my lovely change is doing._

_Did you tell your mother or father or father figure the truth? Did you tell anyone the truth? I must know, maybe you could reply, it'd be nice to hear from you. I miss you. But don't worry, I'll see you again. Soon._

_Me_

I looked around. Steph had come in and was sitting on the other side of the couch. "Hey Steph?"

"Yeah?"

"I got an e-mail that Ranger will want to see."

"Show me it." She said, scooting across the couch. I passed her it and watched as she read it over. She stood and left, returning seconds later carying her cell phone. She pressed a few buttons and handed it to me. "Tell him."

"Yo." Came his voice.

"Uh." I coughed, clearing my voice a little. "Steph said to tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"I uh, got an e-mail from some dude. We thought you might want to read it."

He was silent for a second. Have Steph give you the e-mail so you can forward it to me." The line went dead. I stared at the phone for a second before handing it back to her.

"He wants you to foreward it to him."

She nodded and I waited anxiously as she forwarded it to him. When she was done she offered it back. I took it greedily and sat back down.

"Can you explain to me what you did to make you not be able to get back into the regular things."

I thought for a second. "You mean what I did to make it so that you can't get back to this account?" I asked, showing her my desktop.

"Yeah."

"Oh. I made it so that A) if you log in wrong, it brings you too a trick account that you can't get out of without certain codes. And B) the trick account has… altered, information. Fake girlie stuff every where, and fake passwords and that alert me when they're being used. So, if Ranger dug through, and/or uses them, I'll know, plus the backgrounds different. My trick account has Jensen Ackles as the background, this ones black with grey swirls."

She smiled and nodded, a smirk coming onto her face.

"Don't tell him please."

"Oh, I wont. Will you tell me if he uses them? We can get a little payback together."

I smiled, a mischevous glint in my eyes. "Sure."

Later that night, after Ranger came up, I was sitting on the couch, water in hand. I'd take a sip, set it down, wor k some more, sip, work some more…etc. etc., Until I noticed Ranger watching me.

"What?" I asked, looking up from my laptop for the first time in hours.

"What are you working on?"

"Updating all my TCGs."

"Whats a TCG?" He asked, walking over. He sat in an over stuffed chair that was angled next to the couch.

"A Trading Card Game. These are online."

"These? How many?"

"Well, theres A-List, Locality, Divinitas, Remote, Hunter's Inc, Serendipity, Genetically Empowered, Radiation, Seriously, and Triton Perfection."

He stared at me for a second. "Ten?"

"Yes." I replied after quickly ticking them off.

"So how do you trade cards over the internet?"

Confusion was probably easily read on my face. "E-mail."

He looked a little confused, so I specified. "We write e-mails to each other offering one card for another."

He nodded slowly. "Not to change the subject to much, but what is it exactly that he had to ask 'did you tell anyone the truth?' About?"

"hat hapnd tat d ay." I mumbled.

"What was that?"

"What happened that day."

"What day?"

"The day with the pond."

"You going to tell me what really happened then?"

"No."

"Did you tell anyone the truth?"

"Yes."

He sighed. "Enough with the one-word answers. Who did you tell?"

"Lester. And, before you say anything, yes, he knew that you didn't, but he told me to tell you or Mom, and…maybe I will, IF, I feel that it is neccisary."

And that was the end of the personal talk.

The rest of the night was quiet, and controlled, we had dinner, I took a shower and we all watched a movie. I quickly changed into a pair of cotton shorts and brushed my teeth, then flopped down on the now-empty couch.

_Ranger's POV_

I was woken up with the sound of ringing. It was coming from my side of the bed, and so, I unwrapped myself from Steph, and flipped it open. "Yo."

"Hey Boss, you said to call you if there were any more threats made on either of their lifes. You might want to come see this."

"Be there in ten." I said, flipping it closed. I got out of bed, and threw on black cargo pants, stretchy t-shirt, and my boots, then strapped my watch on. I pulled my hair back into a pony tail, and headed to the door silently pocketing my keys.

Once on the fifth floor, I went to the control room and popped my head in. Hal and Binkie were sitting in there. Hal handed me a minilla folder and I wordlessly opened it. There was a shot of Jade and Lester in the computer store, then Jade right next to Lester, then one of them in a small diner, and a few of Steph and Jade coming off the plane, getting their luggage and standing by the truck. All of them had the sniper rifle scope circle with crosshairs in it. As I flipped to the last picture, I had my mind decided. We were going to a safe house. Now. It was all three of us in the garage. X's personally drawn over all of our heads.

Except Jade's.

I dropped the photo's on the desk, nodded them and headed to the elevator. When it dinged on the seventh floor, I walked through, trying to pull my face into a composed blank.

I walked into the dressing room and grabbed out two duffle bags, and filled one with sets of clean clothes for me, and the other with numerous sets of underwear, bra's jeans and t-shirts for Steph. I zipped them up, and placed them by the bedroom door.

I sat on the side of the bed, and pulled Steph up a bit, "Babe. You got to wake up babe."

"Mmm? Why? Stime's sit? She mumbled, still groggy from sleep.

"Steph, I need you to wake up, and pack whatever you need from the bathroom. Okay?"

"Skay."

"Open your eyes Stephanie."

She pulled them open and looked directly into mine. "You need to get up, and pack anything you want from the bathroom. You can sleep in the car."

I'm not sure what she saw, but she nodded, and rolled out of bed, slipping on a pair of cargo pants and a t-shirt. She headed to the bathroom, and I went out to the living room. Jade was on the couch, pretty much sleeping, but her face was distorted, scrunched up with pain and discomfort. She groaned quietly.

"Jade." I said, shaking her lightly. Her whole body recoiled away from me, a small whimper coming from the back of her throat. Shit.

I grabbed my cell and dialed the one person I thought could carry her, and that she trusted enough to do so. Lester _might _be able to help.

"What?" He asked grumpily into the phone.

"I need some help."

"Boss? What with?"

"My apartment, five minutes."

Exactly five minutes later, Lester walked in. "I need you to wake her up, or carry her to the SUV. I can't."

He looked at me perplexed so I reached out and touched her shoulder gently. Once again, she pulled away, whimpering into the couch.

He came over and crouched by the couch. "Jade?" He asked softly. "Jade, come on Jade. You gotta get up." He brushed the hair out of her face gently.

When she did nothing but cuddle into the couch deeper, he sighed and stood up, then easily bent down and picked her up. He moved gently, making sure not to jostle her, and seemed to be extra careful with her ribs. He ran his hand through her hair, soothing her. I watched as she slowly started waking up.

Suddenly, she started fighting. "Jade." Lester ground out as she pushed, pulled and hit anywhere she could.

She froze, then managed to get "Put me down." Out through gritted teeth.

Lester glanced at me and I nodded. Slowly and carefully, he placed her on her feet. Steph chose this time to come out. She stopped next to me, then looked at the bags at the door, the one in her hand, and then at Lester and Jade before locking eyes with me. "Ranger? Whats going on?"

_I'm ending it there, it seems like a good stopping point. I'll update soon. Check out Well that Never Happened to me Before! Ignore the title(I hate it too) Ooh, and I'm going to change it sometime, so anyone who is following along with it, beware._

_Peanut_


	8. Disculpa Exceptuando

"New threat against you." Ranger locked eyes with me. "Jade, you're the only one who doesn't seem to be in danger from this guy. I think he wants you, so if you would be so kind as to tell us why he would, and that means explaining the e-mail, it'd be greatly appreciated." He said, his tone angry with a hint of sarcasm.

"In the car?" I asked.

He was silent for a few minutes, then he nodded. "Get changed and grab anything you'll need."

I gave him a small nod and skittered around him, heading for the couch. I grabbed a change of clothes and quickly changed into them before putting my pajamas in the suitcase and zipping it closed. I grabbed my laptop off the coffee table, and zipped it into the laptop case part of the backpack, then brought both of them to the door.

Lester and Ranger helped carry out me and Steph's stuff to the car. Ranger directed me to the Bronco, and told me to stay put. I got in back and placed my backpack next to me, then waited.

I was looking around the interior of the car, when I saw my reflection in the rear-view mirror. I almost screamed. I had forgotten to do my hair before leaving. The car door was still open, and I was sitting with my feet out of the car, so, figuring there was no harm, and that I could just fix my hair into a pony-tail quickly, I stood, and bent over carefully. I pulled all my hair into a ponytail and stood back up then went to sit back on the seat. I yelped as I felt something sting the side of my neck. My hand flew to cover the sting, only to feel something sticking out of it. I groaned as I felt the world go blurry and black.

_Ranger's POV_

I showed Lester and Steph the pictures, and was flipping to the last few, when Jade's voice filtered through the garage, echoing against the walls, we all turned towards where she was, just in time to see her start to fall to the ground. Lester took off running the short distance towards her, and I reached to grab Steph, only to find that she had already taken off. With a quick shake I jogged over.

Lester was sitting on the ground, cradling her head in his hands.

I crouched down beside him and gently pulled the feathered dart from her neck. " Ranger, that's the same type of dart that Fisher Cat used on me. It's a tranquilizer." She stated calmly.

I nodded at the new information. We new this wouldn't kill her, he was just knocking her out, like Clyde did.

"Can you stand?" I asked Lester. He nodded and shifted Jade, so that his hands were under her knees and up by her shoulder blades, then he got up onto his knees, and put one foot on the ground at a time, making sure that they were planted. He stood the rest of the way up and turned to me. "Put her in the car, then go to tell Bobby and Junior to pack, before packing for yourself."

"Boss?"

"We're going to the 'safe house' in Maine."

It had been a full ten minutes of silence in the crowded SUV, Steph was bored and humming, Bobby and Junior were talking quietly about their favorite weapons, and Lester was in the far back with barely consious Jade.

We had switched everything into the SUV due to the fact that we couldn't fit everyody in the little Bronco.

"Hows she doing Lester?" I called back to him, glancing back with the rear view mirror.

"Better. I think she's coming too. Several times though," he paused. "She looks more like she's dreaming...although it seems more like a nightamare to me."

11393

It was another thirty-five minutes of silence before she woke up. And by woke up, we mean, she sat upright, and screamed. I jerked with surprise, swerving the car to the side, and slamming on the brakes. I turned in my seat. Lester had his arms up in defense, eyes wide while the little fourteen year old sent fists towards him. "Jade!" I shouted towards her.

Her eyes were wide and unseeing as she randomly punched at anything touching her. "Stop!" When she didn't stop, Lester turned his face away from her, and wrapped his arms around her, then bundeled her into his chest, imobalizing her arms instantly. He held her tight until she stopped squirming, and all we could hear was her strangled breaths.

"Are you going to stop hitting me?" Lester asked Jade calmly.

There was a small whimper from his chest, and he carefully released her. She ejected away from him faster, scrambling across the seat til she had her back firmly pressed against the glass, one arm wrapped around her waist. "Are you okay butterfly?" Steph asked as she climbed around the consoul, and then sat backwards in the seat, right between Bobby and Junior.

Jade's eyes swung to Steph, then to every one else in the car, then she stared at the seat. "Where am I? Whats going on?"

"We're in the SUV on the way to Maine, right now, we're about four hours from there. You were tranqued, so you've been out of it." Steph explained.

Jade's hand went to her neck and she cringed into the seat. "Needles." She half groaned, half whimpered.

Lester jumped in then. "Hey, Jade, look at me okay? Your alright." He said, making eye contact.

She swallowed visibly and nodded.

"Everybody ready for me to continue the drive?" I asked, starting the engine. I saw nods, but waited until Steph was in her seat, and Lestr had gotten Jade into an actual seat before pulling back onto the road.

_Jade's POV_

Lester dragged me from the side of the SUV, and had me sit by the window I had crowded by. The SUV started, and Ranger pulled out as I finished buckling.

There was ten minutes of solid silence, and I was bored to pieces. I started looking around, under my feet, over towards evil guy who had helped hold me down, and some dude I didn't know's seat, and then I sighed and looked over at Lester. "Did my laptop end up with us?"

"Yes." Lester said. "It's in the trunk. We're going to stop for food soon. I can almost hear Steph's stomach. She's going to be hungry soon, plus, we woke her up, I'm surprised she hadn't already gone back to sleep."

As Lester predicted, as we drove off of the highway and into town, Steph's stomach rumbled in anticipation. Ranger puled into a resteraunt, and we all got out, me and Lester waitin until Bobby and that other guy were out so that WE could get out. They al headed in, but me and Lestr hadn't moved. I wanted my laptop. "We'll be in in a minute, I'm going to get her the laptop."

Ranger nodded and tossed Lester the keys. Lester went to the trunk, unlocked it and pulled it open. I pulled a few things off the top until I saw the case, and I instantly snatched it. Lester shut the trunk and beeped it locked, then led me into the oversized cafe.

We found everybody at a table in the back corner of the place. The vafe was a good size, big for a cafe, but it suited the place. It was pretty full, but not packed, so we got a seat that suited us.

The last seat open was between Lester and the guy who had been with phil, and held me down...Bobby is what Ranger called him. I didn't want to be near him. I swallowed big, and slid into the booth, keeping a solid three inches between me and Bobby, causing me to be plastered to Lester's side. I pulled out my laptop, and used the empty case a barrier between Bobby and myself.

Opening my laptop, I turned it on and logged in, then checked to se if there were ANY internet signals around that I could use. There were two. I tried the first one, named kitty, and it asked for a password, so before cracking it with the algorithum I had from a friend, Itried the other one.

Bingo. I was in, theres wasn't password protected. I quickly logged onto Blogger, and started a new post on my blog, called _Online Diary?_

_Okay, I haven't posted in a bit, but it's been hecktic around here. I'm visiting with mi mamá dónde ella vive en vez de está a través de los US. Okay, I promise that I will stick to ingles as best as possible. Some words I actually don't know how to spell in ingles. Sad huh? suspiros I wonder who I could ask?...OMG, that reminds me, my moms husband, he speaks Spanish and ingles, he's cuban. I wrote that somewhere...I know it. _

_I have a deal for whoever, and if anyone is actually reading this, I'll write in spanish (much easier for me I must say) then, I'll use a translator to post the entire part in ingles. _

I realized as I looked back through my post that English was is spanish, and I gave a frusterated sigh, then started to fix it. I highlighted it and started sounding it out, it was how you did it, write? inglesh. My shoulders slumped and I tried a few more times, each time looking more like a foreign word than before.

I accidentally let out a frusterated grunt causing eyes to swing my way. "Dispenso el ser." I mumbled.

Lester smiled a little. "Trying to learn Spanish?"

I groaned. "No. Trying to learn english."

He leaned over and looked at my screen. Sure enough, the translator I had open was spanish-enlgish. I looked over at Ranger. "¿Cómo deletrea usted inglés? "

He looked slightly shocked for a second then spelt it out. "E-n-g-l-i-s-h. Why?"

"Because, I'm not sure if it's right, and it looks weird. I've never seen it written. Plus, ¿Por qué lo deletrearía usted con una E en el principio? ¡Suena como un i!" Seriously.

Ranger cracked a grin. "Sometimes words aren't spelt how they sound in english."

"Why not? It would make life so much easier."

He chuckled. "Yes it would."

"Okay." Steph interupted. "What just happened?"

Ranger dragged her closer and wrapped an arm around her ith a smile. "Nothing important."

As I shifted back to my computer screen, I brushed against Lester and felt him shaking silently, so I glanced over to see tha a huge grin had invaded his face. "Mono hispanohablante estúpido. " I mumbled.

"All I got out of that was stupid." Steph said reffering to Ranger and Lester who had started laughing.

Ranger was the first to recover, and he took the courtasy to tell Steph what I had said. "She called Lester a stupid spanish-speaking monkey."

He settled for a grin, and shook his head. The waitress took this time to come over and take drink orders, and give us menus with an apology for not giving us them before, along with introducing her self. Shelby she said her name was.

"Tendré un vidrio de leche, por favor. " I said with a quick glance at the drinks. I looked up when I was met with silence, and Shelby was looking at me like I had grown an extra ear.

She cleared her throat. "Um..."

"She'll have a glass of milk, and I'll have orange juice." Ranger said, interveining.

"Thats what I said." I added confused.

Lester elbowed me gently. "I may be a stupid spanish-speaking monkey, but I keep my english and spanish strait." He said.

"Oh. I said it in spanish?" He nodded and I felt heat rise to my cheaks. This hadn't happend in a while, and I didn't know why it did this time.

They all finished ordering their drinks, and 'Shelby' as the name tag read, dissapeared.

I looked back down at my laptop and continued writing.

_Acabo de atascar con espñaol. Es más fácil. Las cosas son deletreadas como ellos suenan, contrario de de inglés, ellos tienen sentido. ¿Significo, por qué es inglés deletreado e-n-g-l-i-s-h? Suena como un yo en el comienzo, como en inglés. ¿Cómo deletrea usted el suspiro en inglés? Que uno de esas palabras que yo no sé cómo deletrear. Necesito aprenderlos. Las palabras aleatorias... quiere pluviselva. ¿Cómo deletrea usted que en inglés? El traductor quizás tenga razón, pero sea a menudo diferente de lo que mi maestro me dice, así que podría estar equivocado. _

The waitress returned and I smiled and nodded, purposely not speaking, as she placed a glass of milk down in front of me.

"Are you ready to order?" She asked politely.

Ranger and Steph ordered first and The dude between Lester and Ranger ordered, then Lester, then finally me. I took a deep breath, and started. "I'll have," I started, glancing at Lester. "the blueberry pancakes."

"That comes with hash on toast or a bisket with sausage gravey, which do you want?"

It was my turn to stare at her like she'd grown another ear. Hash? Sausage gravy? What?

"Picar en trocitos en el brindis. Un bisket con salsa de carne de suasage."

I gave Range the oh look. "Picar en trocitos en el brindis." I said, then repeated what she had called it. "Hash on toast."

She nodded and wrote it down, then turned to Bobby and got his order. She said it should be ready in thirty-five minutes.

I looked back down and concentrated on writing, ignoring them talking around me.

_Okay, so I'll post the translation after, but this makes me sad. I know tons and tons of ingles, and for the purpose of life in...my regular home, and Steph's husbands apartment, the only time I had used spanish was when I had 'extreme' emotions, fear, anger...you know. Now though, it's like the tranque switched off my ingles. Nope. I'm not going to beat myself up. It's probably just because I'm not used to this. It's not like i've ever been asked if I wanted 'hash on toast' or 'a bisket with sausage gravy'. I'd heard of them in spanish...because they were words I had used. The only place I've had hash was in a small resteraunt by my house. It was a small spanish resteraunt so I ordered in spanish. 'hash' is 'picar en trocitos' also means, 'stinging in gobbets'._

_Later, Jade_

With that, I published it, and read over it, then exited out of Blogger.

I opened up Adobe PhotoShop 7.0, and did ctrl+n for a new file. I made it be 1280x800 px, and transparent. Before I started, I dug into my bag, and grabbed my wireless mouse. I slid a glance at Bobby, and scooted a little farther away.

I took the jump drive from the bottom of the mouse, and plugged it into the USB port, and started started searching the internet for screencaps from The Simpsons, with the mouse. I found a bunch a pictures of Lisa Simpson, and stuck them on the new doccument. I made the six pitures over lap, then gave each one a layer mask by pressing the little square button with a circle in it on the bottom of the layers chart. Then I used the gradient button to blend them together. When I was done, I examined it, and then made it my background, and uploaded it to my blog.

Since I was already logged in from the writing, I simply clicked +new post, and uploaded the picture, then wrote a few lines about what it is and my inspiration. Though, the only true inspiration, was sheer bordom.

I saved it, and went to http://www.peanut. My blog popped up with the crappy template background. I could change it using a simple code, but I decided against it because every other site by me was changed by me to be unique, so I left this one alone.

When I saw that the background picture uploaded alright, and that the automated link worked, I exited out of it, and quit out of everything. I glanced up to see the waitress coming with our food. She placed a plate down in front of everybody and asked if anybody wanted a refill. She took almost everybodies glass for a refill, I think Ranger was the only one who asked for a water instead. With that, she left. I unplugged the mouses jump drive and stick it into the bottom of the mouse, and put both the mouse and the laptop back into the case. I buckled the case and ppulled it tight to my side, sliding another inch or to away from Bobby.

Lester looked over at me with slightly narrowed eyes, and scooted me back over. I wimpered lightly and fought against his hand, forcing myself back towards Lester. Bobby sighed and I jumped, my head jerking to face him. "I'm not going to hurt you." Bobby said quietly.

I ignored him with a visible swallow, and focussed on my plate.

The rest of breakfast was silent.

Ranger slipped some bills into the small folder, and we all stood up. I followed them to the back of the resteraunt, where Steph dissapeared behind a door. Bathrooms. I followed Steph in, and quickly delt with that. When I came back out, I slowed down, stepping to the left of the door. Bobby was the only one out, and I didn't really want to get near him.

He was watching me the whole time, and when I found myself tensly standing on the other side of the door and hall from him, he sighed. "Jade-"

"Don't." I said, cutting him off.

"Just hear me out." He said locking eyes with me.

I heaved a big sigh, then winced. "Fine."I said. "You've got thirty seconds, start talking."

He was silent for close to ten seconds before starting. "I understand why you don't trust me, but you need to know that neither me nor Phil knew that you had any problems with needles, and if I had any idea that you would react that way, then I wouldn'tve held you down. I really am sorry."

I watched him in silence. He sounde sincere, and I guess they couldn't of been able to know that I was terrified of needles, I didn't tell them...

I nodded. "Disculpa exceptuando."

He blinked twice. "She said apology excepted." Ranger said causing me to jump. I looked over to him.

"When did you get back here?"

"Same time as every one else, when he started. Have to be more aware of your surroundings."

I glared at im before stalking down the hallway.

_Just press the little button and review! It's greatly appreciated, I'll update as soon as I can, but it should be another 2 weeks at the most. :( Sorry. :):)_

_Peanut_


	9. Bubbles

The trip was long and boring. I felt like sleeping, but I just couldn't get myself to close my eyes in the car. Ranger said it was going to take about 11 without stopping, but longer since we needed to stop for food and bathroom breaks.

We left at seven, had breakfast at eight, and it was now about noon. Not counting the hour breakfast stop, we had completed about four hours of the trip, meaning that there was still another seven hours in the car, plus any other stops.

Suddenly, the car stopped, and I heard doors opening. I looked out the window. We had pulled to a stop at a gas station with an adjoining diner.

"Coming?" Lester asked, causing me to swing my head towards him.

"Yeah." I said shaking my head slightly to clear it. I decided against bringing my laptop here, and just settled for my pen and notebook. Upon entering the small diner, I was greeted by a wave of strong scents, hamburgers being the majority of them.

A very distinct smell I must say.

Moving on, I noticed that there were three entrances/exits, one to the left, that connected it to the small mini mart of a gas station, the one we were entering through, and a swinging door at the back right of the place, presumably leading to the kitchen. There was a bar at the back of the back of the diner, with stools lining it. Only five of the eleven stools were occupied. Four looked like men in for a simple lunch, and then there was a girl, probably not much older than me, sitting at the counter deeply engaged in a book.

There were tables strategically placed around the room, booths against the walls, and 4 people tables placed in rows around the opening space. Two square tables had been pushed together to hold what looked like had been a big party of people, because there were only slots for ten, but twelve chairs had been shoved around it, not including the wooden booster seat/highchair at a corner.

Lastly I did a quick mental count of the people actually in the diner, including the three waitresses cleaning tables, delivering orders and manning the counter. There was two full four person tables, two people at a booth to the right, the five people at the counter, and a couple sitting across from each other in a booth to the left. Twenty people total, not including us. With our little group, it'd be twenty-six people.

We had managed to get the booth in the back corner of this place as well. Ranger and Steph were in the seat with their back to the wall, and Bobby, Lester and the other dude whose name I _still _didn't know were across from them.

I slid myself in next to Steph.

Lunch went smoothly, and I was careful about keeping it to one language, meaning that I was no longer using Ranger as a translator or being met

With blank stares when I answered something simple.

We all went to the bathroom again and I managed to persuade Lester to let me go into the mini-mart though only if he came. With a triumphant smile, I headed for the door to the store, and stepped through it. I reached in my pocket, and sure enough I had thrown a ten in there. The first place I went was to the area with the little nick-knacks. I grabbed a bottle of bubbles, and headed up to the counter to look at the selection under the counter. I skipped over all the chocolate bars or anything with chocolate in it, and grabbed a pack of gum, along with a pack of orange tic-tacs.

I paid and grabbed my stuff, motioning to him that I was done. "Bubbles?" He asked as we exited both of us noting that the SUV was pulled up at a pump and Ranger was outside filling it with gas.

"Yeah. What is so wrong about buying bubbles?"

"Nothing...I guess, just curious."

11393

About half an hour from the diner, I saw Steph lean over and press the button for the radio. The music blasted so loud that everybody jumped and the car swerved. Ranger quickly regained control and he turned it off.

"Oops." Steph said softly, her cheeks tinting red only slightly from my viewpoint.

I only laughed.

I'm sorry it's so short, but I've got this terrible case of writers block and I don't know what to do, but I'll come up with something and post next weekend? J

_Any suggestions??_

Peanut


	10. More Driving

Chapter 10 

The radio had stayed off since the little mishap with it, and now the car was purely silent. I knew that there was still hours left of the trip, and I could feel myself getting sleepy with the constant scenery.

Trees. That's all there been out here. Trees, trees and more freaking trees. I mean, can you die of too much oxygen? Too many trees maybe?

I sighed audibly. Stupid trees.

My eyes stung from being open, so I closed them, just to let them rest, and the next time I opened my eyes, I felt all too groggy.

Steph's POV 

Boring. La la la la la la…I sighed not long after Jade did, and turned back to look at her. There were dark purple bags under her drooping eyes, and I watched as they shut, and her body shift back slightly. Sleeping at last.

Not much more than five minutes after she was asleep, Ranger's phone rang. I looked over sharply as the noise pierced the silence. He picked it up quickly off the pad on the dashboard where his phone and mine sat. "Yo." He asked quietly, seeing the sleeping form in the back.

"Yep, okay. I'll make sure to do that. Thanks." And he hung up. He placed his phone back down, and looked over at me. "Jade's blood test came back negative for any sort of foreign bacteria. She's all clear." His eyes flickered to the rear view mirror, as if talking to the three men in the back.

Speaking to me again, he started. "He told me just to make sure she's cleaning it and rebandaging it daily, drinking plenty of water and taking vitamins."

I nodded. "So are we going to stop at a store?" I asked.

He nodded. "I don't have anything at the safe house except for a few days worth of military rations."

My lips curled back over my teeth in a grimace of disgust. Ranger only smiled at my reaction. "That's what I thought."

A few minutes later he spoke when I realized we were still driving. "I'm going to wait a bit to stop until we get closer, that way we can get items that need a fridge or freezer, and she can get more sleep. We'll have dinner at the same time."

"Okay." I told him. "That's sounds like a plan."

Ranger smiled, lacing the fingers on his right hand with mine.

"Mom, Dad, we're still in the car." Lester said sarcastically from the back.

"Watch it Santos." Ranger responded briskly. "Or you'll find yourself on grave yard shift for a month."

I glanced in the rear view mirror to see him hold his hands up in a fake surrender, a large smirk on his lips. My eyes flickered once again to sleeping girls' form.

"How'd you do it?" Ranger asked suddenly. I looked over at him.

"Do what?"

"Get to…wherever she's been, visit her and back and have nobody notice you were gone. Morelli, your parents, friends, my men, and me." He was shaking his head. "When could you have possibly left?"

I looked down at my lap, guilty. "The last time I saw her, was when you were in the hospital, I was with you for the first few days, not leaving, but I left for two days when Julie, Ron and Rachel came to sit with you. I hopped on a plane like I did every other time, and was back two days later like nothing had happened."

"And no one noticed you were gone for two days?" He asked, glancing at me out of the corner of his.

"Nope. I usually wait until Joe gets a big case, then he's so focused on it that he and most of the department don't notice that I'm not bringing in skips. Plus, it's also normally weekends."

"What about me Steph? What's my excuse?" He asked, this time not looking over, his head shaking slightly side to side. "How did I not notice?"

"You run a business Ranger…your not expected to keep tabs on me…"

"But I should. I should notice when you're gone for two days, or one, or a week. You notice when I'm gone."

"And you were in the hospital." I added.

"Only this last time, I doubt that's the only time you saw her since I knew you."

"Well, yeah…but, Ranger-"

" I'm sorry Steph."

"It's okay Ranger, really."

He went to speak again, and I held up a hand. "No." I said firmly.

He grabbed the hand he was holding, and brought it up to his lips and kissed my knuckles. "I love you."

"I love you too Ranger." There they were, the four little words that had taken me a while to get out. For Morelli it didn't happen until Ranger got shot and I couldn't imagine what would happen if he weren't in my life. The same thing goes for Ranger. I told him close to the same thing that I told Morelli, just Ranger's included a small two-letter word in it. It was _in_. I told him I was _in_ love with him.

11393

Almost two hours later, the car pulled to a stop in the parking lot of a nice reseraunt. Jade was starting to make so commotion in the back, so my eyes had swung back there to watch, and make sure that –if needed- I could help. She started by pushing her curled up body out – as if stretching. Her body ended up laying on the seat, her head that had once been on the window, now lay in Lester's lap, one hand curled around his knee. Her stomach was pressed into the seat, as she layed on her belly, and her right hand was bent at a painful angle, laying across her back.

Lester was fighting a grin, seen as she had crawled into his lap, and I could easily tell that it was not something new. She shouldn't be laying the way that she was, it probably would hurt…

"Lester." I said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Try and roll her over." I told him. "Her ribs…this isn't good for them."

His eyes widened fractionally and he nodeed.

11393

We were all squished into a booth in the back of a nice little resteraunt. By my watch, it was getting close to five, and I was ready for food.

"How much longer is there in the car?" I asked.

"About three hours." Jade responded.

I nodded. That would make it eight o'clock. Then you'd have to add on the hour or two we spend here, a good hour at the store, and any tolls, or traffic.

"So, we get back around, what, midnight-ish?" I asked.

Ranger nodded this time. "Probably around there."

I groaned, then turned to look at him. "Don't you get tired of driving?"

"Sometimes, but I'm not driving the whole way." He nodded to Bobby. "He's driving the rest of the way."

Bobby smiled, and I couldn't help but smile. A contagious smile he has there.

His ESP must of kicked in, because his grin only widened.

11393

After a nice meal, we were back on the road, Bobby in the drivers seat, Ranger sitting Shotgun, head leaned back and eyes closed. I scanned the car at the rest of the occupants. Jade was back asleep, head back in Lesters' lap, partially on her side, partially on her back. Lester was also asleep, his head tilted back much like Rangers' with his eyes closed, breathing deep and slow. Hal was partially awake. He'd fall asleep, and the car would move slightly, turning or going over a crack, and he'd wake up. They all seemed tired, so I'm glad they were sleeping, butI'm sure that if they needed, or cared too, they could stay awake easily. They were military men.

**I'm **_**SO**_** sorry that it's taken so long. There has been a snag with real life. Mid terms are coming up, and I'm preparing for those slightly, plus I'm missing a day of school, so I've got extra homework…Hopefully I'll be able to post next Sunday as well.**

**Reviewing isn't too hard…Just click the littlebutton…******

**Peanut16**


	11. Kevlar Blankets

Thanks to _tickledorange_,_ FSD_, _VeaPlum_, _parisnight_, and _Rangerette_ for reviewing!

Chapter 11 –Yes, Chapter 11, I is posting it on time

The car was slowing down, I could tell. My eyes were closed ,and my breathing was slow, and somehow I knew that I was asleep, or waking up from being asleep, which would explain the darkness, but I couldn't quite find the energy to pull my heavy lids open.

I tried opening them, and when all I got with tons of effort was a slight crack of light, I let go and let them fall shut, eyes rolling back shut as well. My eye lids were sticky feeling, and for some reason, it made me all the more determined to open them. I took a silent deep breath, and tried again. This time, they flicked open, and _I_ was the one to pull them shut away from the bright light.

I felt the car stop beneath me, and I groaned. This meant I had to open my eyes again. When something moved below me that wasn't the car, I froze. My eyes flung back open, ignoring the pain when the bright light hit them, and were instantly met with a set of bright green ones, slightly wider than normal, with worry.

"Jade?" The person with the eyes asked. "Jade, it's Lester, remember? You're okay…can you speak to me?" Lester said quietly.

I nodded. "Yep. Sorry." I mumbled, pulling myself up and groaning slightly as I stretched my sore muscles. "We there?" I asked after a minute.

"Not the safe house, but we are at the store." Lester replied.

I nodded. "Mmm, food."

A smile tugged at his features. "You just ate two hours ago."

I shrugged. "I'm a teenager, and I'm growing, that's my excuse." I said, rubbing my stomach.

Lester simply shook his head and moved to open the door, seen as everyone was leaving the SUV.

It didn't take long for us to get into the store, it was just the slow pace that Ranger set, due to the fact that he wanted to have time to give us all the _rules_. That's right, _rules_. I had to stay with two of the guys at all times, as did Steph, and if at anytime I got separated, I was to yell to get their attention. There was a bunch more, but that's all I got before I tuned them out.

A smile spread across my face as I walked in and saw all the food. Lester, Bobby and I set off with our small list of necessary items. We were also to pick up anything else we might need.

After getting all of the stuff on the list into the cart, Lester and Bobby started going back and forth across all the isles asking me numerous questions about what I liked and didn't like. They stopped at the soda isle, and went in.

"What do you like for soda?" Lester asked.

I blinked before speaking. "I don't." I replied easily.

"You don't like soda?" Bobby asked.

I turned to him. "No."

"Wait. Why?" Lester interjected.

"Uh." I paused, then shrugged when I understood the question."

"I just don't. It makes me feel weird. I haven't had any soda since…what? Third or fourth grade." I said, then shrugged. I turned and waited for them to be with me before exiting the isle.

"So…" Lester started. "What do you like to drink?"

"Water…" I paused after that and thought about what I drank. "Milk, some juice, and Vita Splash."

"Vita Splash?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah. It's a powder you mix in with 17oz of water, and it's a bit of flavoring, but _tons_ of vitamins and stuff. Bit it's got a lot of salt in it."

He nodded. "You strike me as the person that knows what she eats." Bobby commented.

I smiled. "I do. I don't count calories, and I've never had a portion sized meal in my life, but I try and eat healthy. I take a vitamin everyday, or, well, at least I did until I came down here, and I love fruits and vegetables, so I get full sevings of those." I stopped and turned into the isle with drink mixes in it, and found dark green box on the shelf, labeled 'Vita Splash' and the flavor was Green Tea and Honey, and tossed several into the cart. Then waited.

They asked me occasional questions about what I liked and didn't like, and I managed to get a few answers out of them as well. Turns out Bobby is allergic to sea food, and that Lester has an allergy to dust-mights, so he can't each Chocolate, or when he does, he has to have Benadryl, or an eppy pen near by. Lester's favorite fruit matches up with min, and is a large red apple, while Bobby would rather munch on Celery. That made me stop, look at him, and stare for a minute before going back to shopping.

Everything was quiet, and a split second before it happened, I knew something was about to happen. It was like something straight from a movie, where it slows down, and you can see _everything_ that's happening.

It only took a split second to take everything in, the calm, relaxed, innocent people, scattered around the store doing mundane things; standing in check out lines, holding their child's hand and asking what they want, waiting in line at the delly, or mulling over their options, but, in the second after that, everything changed.

I was partly shoved to the ground, and I partly _fell_ to the ground by my own free will. A heavy weight was on my chest, and my ribs screamed in protest. I could hear screams, and breaking glass, and several over sounds that I couldn't identify. What I could see, swam around me in a blur of motion and pain.

I was josteled suddenly, and was no longer on the ground as everything was put into fast forward. My body was curled up against a large chest ,and I could feel something cover the other side of me after a couple seconds. In a few more seconds, I was in the back seat of a car, and it was moving.

I could hear the voices, and I knew them, recognize them, but I couldn't focus on them. They seemed to fade, then get loud, and back and forth. I pinched my eyes shut as my side throbbed, and groaned quietly. I moved to curl up a bit more, and felt another sharp stabbing pain. This time I whimpered.

Lester's POV 

Cara stopped suddenly, and a loud shot rang out. I acted instinctively, and threw myself at Jade, who was already going toward the floor, and laid completely on top of her. I turned slightly when someone moved by my head. It was Bobby. He was crouched down next to me, and I assumed that he had gone down like me, just gotten up first.

In a matter of seconds, we were up, and I had Cara curled into my chest.

Junior ran in from the front door, at a dead run, pausing only to see us and continue toward us, two blankets in hand. He barely stopped to lay the heavy kevlar blanket across Jade. I didn't turn to see what I already knew was happening behind me.

Ranger, I knew, would be running toward the front door with his arm around Stephanie, one hand ducking her head, the other keeping his balance and speed to get them out. Junior would drape the blanket around Stephanie, and Ranger would pick her up like I did Jade, and continue running.

I got to the car barely twenty seconds after, and put Jade in as gently as possible at the speed I was going. The blanket didn't come off, I simply kept her curled to my chest, and held her tightly there, looking to the right, across the open seat, and door, to see Ranger do the same motion as me. Doors slammed shut, and Ranger didn't have to give a command for the seating arrangement for the last two men to be settled. Junior was in the drivers seat and gunning it out of the lot, and Bobby was in the passenger seat, looking back.

We were completely silent for a full minute before speaking was back, and we were spitting out information. Jade groaned so quietly I almost missed it, then shifted ever so slightly and whimpered. I pulled the blanket away, to see her, eyes shut tight, face contorted into one of pain. There was a ruffle next to me, and I figured it was Ranger taking the blanket off of Steph.

"Shit." I said, and tried scooting over, when I realized it must of hurt her to be jostled around with her ribs in such a bad state. Ranger and Steph moved to the back, and leaned over the back of the seat I was in slightly to look. I laid her onto her back, and had to uncurl her before I could get to her shirt. I pulled it up to just below her breasts, ignoring that since not only was she a minor, but she was hurt.

Her bandage was clean from what I could see so far, but it was only the ace bandage that was holding the ribs still while they tried to knit together again. Bruises weren't breaks, so they didn't have to go back together so to speak, but ace bandages held it still so it could heal. I started unwrapping the ace bandage from her waist.

When I was down to her tone skin, I bit back a gasp. The thick gauze that laid over the stab wound was a dark crimson color, and when I gently peeled the tape up to examine the wound, from orders of Bobby, I could clearly see where she had popped her stitches. All of them. There looked like there could be three or four there, but none were visible through the blood that was seeping from the wound.

"Ranger." Bobby said. "I can't stitch her up in the car. We need to get her to a hospital now. I think that _all_ of her stitches have been ripped open."

I saw Ranger nod out of the corner of my eye.

"Jade, butterfly? Please open your eyes for me." Steph pleaded reaching over the seat and brushing the hair out of her eyes.

"Mmmm." Jade whimpered. "Hurts." She whispered hoarsly, eyes still closed.

"Can you open your eyes for me?" Steph asked again, still leaned over.

When Jade pull her eyes open, I was taken back by how much emotion was evident. The hurt and pain showing clearly in her glistening eyes. She squeezed her eyes shut and coughed out a strangeled moan when we hit a crack in the road. A tear slid down her cheek, and her shoulders started shaking.

Crying.

END CHAPTER –To Be Continued… 

Okay, so I'm VERY sorry to leave it like this, but my hands are SO dead right now. I've painted the entirelving room with my Sister, three coats on one side, two on the other, moving furniture between sides, so not only am I tired, but I'm covered in white primer paint. It's like 12:30 in the morning, and I need SLEEP. Happy, Merry, Christmahannirohanzica people!  Or, Happy Holiday Seasons, Happy/Merry Winter Break…I could go on and on.

Reviews please! Maybe I'll be able to post more tomorrow, or on X-mas, but for sure there will be an _extra_ long chapter for you next Sunday!

Peanut


	12. The Hospital pt1

1/12/08

Okay, so I apologize so much for not posting, but I got caught up with hanging out with my sister, and I've been all stressed about Science Fair.(and the fact that I break out in hives every time I get near my project) –eye roll- Anyway, I hope this chapter satisfies you until next Sunday.  Oh, did I mention the new computer? My Dad switched my computer to a flat screen, Pentium 4, running XP! Woot. So for almost a week I didn't have Microsoft Word.

On another note, I'd like to give a special thanks _Svendances _for pointing out that I called Jade 'Cara' in the last chapter, and I'm sorry to anyone who might of gotten confused because of that. That's the main character from the other story I've been writing, but finished, and the sequel is running around in my head on a rampage. 

As usual, thanks to _Svendances, Rangerette, Blackonyx2, LizStom _and_, tickledorange_ for reviewing! 

- I'm sorry if it's confusing how I switch back and forth between Lester and Jade in this chapter.

**CHAPTER 12** – _LESTER'S _ POV(for the short moment)

The car was speeding through the streets. I knew that Junior had no idea where he was going while Bobby attempted t get the GPS to spit out the directions to the nearest hospital.

"Turn left in 20 yards." The mechanical voice said. Bobby sighed. A few more directions later, the car entered the lot on two wheels.

JADE'S POV 

Every bump the car went over, and hole in the road was a small wave of pain, through my pain-numbed body. I felt it when they checked my bandage, and heard them say that my stitches were popped. All of them. I didn't hear much else, until an unusual voice broke through, saying to turn left in some amount of yards. It was a fake voice. One I could replicate from a computer.

That thought wiped away as the car made a ruff turn, the momentum pulling me across the seat toward the side of the SUV.

I gritted my teeth, trying not to make a sound, but I couldn't help the slightly smothered watery moan that escaped my lips. I closed my eyes, and started going over lyrics in my head, getting my mind on to a topic slightly funnier. This song, Mood Rings, by Relient K. I personally, found it hilarious. It's all about trying to get girls to wear mood rings so that they'll be 'tipped off to when their ticked off'.

_they're like the real world meets boy meets world meets days of our lives_

Oh god. The pain radiated through me, almost like a bee humming. This annoying little thing, unfortunately, this was like an oversized bee that was trying to EAT ME.

Okay maybe not, but it seemed like it.

Suddenly, I bit off a gasp of pain as the car wheeled around a particularly sharp corner that had the car tilting to one side. The brakes engaged, and slid to the side a little as came to a stop.

Doors opened, and slammed shut and within a the span of ten seconds, two arms came around me, picking me up and moving forward.

I pried my eyes open, and caught a glimpse of Junior, stepping away from the drivers side door with his hands up, fists clenching. I didn't get a chance to see more, or ponder that thought anymore, as we entered the doors to what looked to be the emergency room.

People were talking in semi loud voices, and as the weigh of my head became too much, I let it fall to Lester's shoulder. My eyelids followed, and after a moment, I could practically feel my body loosen.

Lester's POV 

I explained the situation to the lady manning the front desk, of whom stood when I entered, bloody hands, and Jade in my arms. I was about to say something, when Jade's head fell to my shoulder. I looked down at her, to see her bright blue eyes flutter closed, and only a moment later, I felt her go completely limp.

I had to quickly readjust my grip so I didn't drop her when she went unconscious. The women paused for a heart beat, then moved into action, calling out something to the doors straight ahead. She led us through them, and to the right. Just down the hall, and then hooked a right and a left, until she pulled open a curtain, and gestured to the empty bed. I stepped forward, and gently laid her on it, then went to sit in the chair by the bed, but stopped, and pulled my hands behind my back.

She is Steph's daughter. Steph needed to be up next to Jade, not me. I kept repeating that in my head, my body tense as I stood stalk still.

My eyes were riveted to the bed as a small whimper of pain came from the previously unconsious form.

"Butterfly? Jade, can you open your eyes?" Steph asked, her hand rubbing Jade's.

There was another whimper, and her eyes fluttered open.

JADE'S POV 

The light was bright as I opened my eyes, and I immediately shut them against the light. I groaned. I started to pull my free hand up over my eyes, making a face when it responded slowly and groggily to come up. Finally, it rested over my closed eyes, keeping the bright light that shone behind my eyes lids at bay. After a few calming breathes, I managed to open my eyes again, this time I blinked my eyes awake.

He first thing I noticed was that the walls were white. Slowly, fighting panic, I looked around, taking in my Mom, Lester, Ranger, Bobby and the other guy who was stepping away from the car, Junior, standing at the back of the room. Steph had my hand in hers and her eyes were glassy with tears that hadn't flooded over yet.

I was about to happen what happened when everything came back to me with a flash, the shots, the stitches, the _blood_. I managed to pull my head up enough so I could look down over my chest to where my shirt was now soaked with blood. That meant…Lester…

I looked up at Lester, and tried to find his hands. They were behind him, his body tense.

"Show-" I started to say, but my throat was dry, and it cracked when I tried to speak. I stopped, and swallowed hard. "Hands." I said this time, looking straight at Lester.

"You don't need to see them." He said, as if reading my mind.

"Yes." I forced out. "I do."

"Why?" He asked.

"Because. I need to know how much blood I lost." I said. "Just show me."

He looked at me for a second, then glanced to Steph, who nodded. She knew I wouldn't give up. With a sigh, he brought his hands out in front of him, showing the thick layers of red that coated them half way up to his elbow. Most of it was from dripping though.

I groaned and dopping my head to the bed, then held my breath as I felt a sharp pang in my side. If I have lost to much, I know that I'll have to have that transfusion thing, and that meant getting an extra needle shove in me. I was going to have an IV, I knew that, although I wasn't very excited about it. In fact, I was nevervous, hell, even _scared_ of when the doctor would come in, and order for an IV line to be hooked up.

A second later, I wished I hadn't thought that, as a doctor, tall, dark brown, almost black hair, freckles, and a long white coat came in, and quickly started moving around the space, pulling the curtain around us, and talking to everyone.

"I'm doctor Kansler. Who are the relatives?" He asked, finally stopping.

"I'm her mother." Steph said.

He nodded as if he could see the relation. "Then they are going to need to go and wait in the waiting room."

"No." Steph and Ranger said. I just settled for a panicked look.

Ranger spoke before the doctor could say any more, calming him, and explaining that my life was in danger, yada yada yada.

"This area of the hospital is very secure, I assure you." Kansler said.

"She was shot at in the grocery store." Ranger said with finality.

The doctor looked slightly unwilling, but turned to me. "Are you okay with this?"

I nodded.

"Okay." He said, clearing his thoughts before speaking again. He stood, and went to the curtain edge, where a small nurse in blue scrubs stepped forward. "I need and IV started STAT." He said, then came back to me, and reached past me, hooking up machinery.

When he came over with the pads that would stick to my chest to monitor my heart rate, I could feel my breathing get heavier, in short pants. Oh god. This was really happening, he's gonna hook up the heart monitor, then the IV…and and and.

By now, I was practically hyperventilating with nervousness.

He worked with my shirt a little, making no actually contact to my skin, and placed the little round pads on. He flicked a switch on the machine, and the room was filled with a rapid beet. Kansler looked over at me, then moved to the side of the bed and sat back on the stood, locking eyes with me.

He looked slightly worried as he glanced between the heart monitor and me. "Hey." He said gently. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Jade." I said, still panting.

"Okay Jade, I need you to calm down a little okay? Can you try to take some deep breaths for me?"

I did as he said, and took in a large breath, only to cough, and then whimper and wrap my arms around my waist as it made pain lace it's way down to the wound on my side.

Just then, the nurse entered with a bag of clear liquid, and a tube from the bottom, all the way to the needle at the end.

The heart monitor gave away my fear and we could hear as my heart skipped a beat, and continued on at a faster pace.

LESTER'S POV 

The monitor skipped a beat, and I looked to Jade with a concerned look. The nurse that had entered walked all the way over to the stand that stood by the heart monitor, and hooked the bag up, then trailed the tube down, and looked at the doctor.

When Dr. Kansler nodded, the nurse moved to Jades hand, and picked it up. "You're going to have to relax your hand, you might feel a bit of a pinc-" That was all she got a chance to say, as Jade jerked her hand from her grasp, the inches from her hand.

When the doctor moved to grab her hand, she screamed out a loud 'no'. This time, the doctor grabbed at her bicept, pressing them forcefully, but without physically hurting her, to the hospital mattress.

All hell broke loose. Steph was freaking out at the doctor and threatening the nurse, while Ranger was physically holding Steph back, speaking louder than usual at the doctor. When I started to take a step forward to give the doctor and nurse a piece of my mind, I was halted by a strong hand on my shoulder. I looked behind me at Junior, who had the 'don't even think about it', look on his face. He was right though. Without speaking this was his way of saying that me hurting the doctor would do nothing to help the situation.

I turned my attention to the girl on the bed. Jade withered in fear, her knees jerking up to hit the doctor. Dr. Kansler wasn't close enough, so her knees did nothing. Her face was contorted into one of terror, and the heart monitor was going off rapidly

I nodded to Junior, and stepped to the bed. Ranger looked at me, and pulled Stephanie back, turning her so his back was to the bed. I sat next to her on the bed, and with a glance at me, the Dr. Kansler seeed to understand what I was doing, and carefully released her arm. I was ready for when they came up to fight everyone off, so I simply caught them, and held hem in one hand, while grabbing her legs with the other. I pulled her over to me and into my chest, holding her in place as she died down from the adrenaline that was most likely pumping through her veins.

Her screams turned into sobs that racked her whole body, and a bit of mine.

11393

Woot! Okay, so I'm SO EXCITED, but Sorry at the same time. With science fair and all that stuff,I know that I'm posting REALLY later, but with all the crazy stuff going on… I almost forgot my BIRTHDAY! Yay! **Dances** Tomorrow is my birthday, tomorrows my birthday… Yah, so now everything is even MORE confusseling. So, Seen as I've been trying to get this chapter out since Monday, I'll post it a day earlier than two weeks later (Something like that at least) I have to go and get ready for the dance tonight. Gonna be a late night! Out until 11PM, then probably hanging out with my friends later.

Again, sorry I had to cut it off there, but I have to do my hair, and be at the dance in 20 minutes 

Don't forget to review! I promise to have the next chapter up next Sunday, NO MATTER WHAT!

Erin


	13. The Hospital Pt2

Woot! I got it up! I know it's late, and I'm sorry!! BUT, I've been busy, Also, on a good note, I'm doin' good, with my science fair project done (not counting all the papers I have to write for it, just the experiment) and _Monday_ was my B-Day party, just had a few friends over, ten of us total. Four or five couldn't come.  It was awesome though, got to dance with my Cassie more, and I even gave some friends hugs  Cameron feels specail now. Without further ado, the rest of my Acknowlegements….

Special thanks to my wonderful reviewers – _LizStorm, Svendances, parisnight, MystiW79, tickledorange_, _tereseh, Kristen (_Funny, you're not the first to ask me that, and I don't know. She IS young.  Thanks for reviewing! and _cool cat_ (Thanks, by the way, for the review. You know how much I love them.)

And extra SPECIAL thanks to my LOVE(not like that), dancing partner, and singing partner, Cassie, for influence of having a FEAR OF NEEDLES - Aichmophobia or Belonephobia(one of them or both, mean fear of needles) Poor Cassie had to have her Gardacil shot on Monday(had to leave the party early), and even though I told her it wasn't that bad (I've already hadthe first 2) she was nervous. Loves Cassie Dearest.

Chapter 13 

Last Chapter ::

I nodded to Junior, and stepped to the bed. Ranger looked at me, and pulled Stephanie back, turning her so his back was to the bed. I sat next to her on the bed, and with a glance at me, the Dr. Kansler seeed to understand what I was doing, and carefully released her arm. I was ready for when they came up to fight everyone off, so I simply caught them, and held hem in one hand, while grabbing her legs with the other. I pulled her over to me and into my chest, holding her in place as she died down from the adrenaline that was most likely pumping through her veins.

_Her screams turned into sobs that racked her whole body, and a bit of mine._

Part 2 ::

Lester's POV

After a few minutes, the heart monitor showed that she was calming down, the beat of her heart returning to a more normal one, and then slower. When the beat settled at a slow, steady rythem, and her breaths became longer and deeper ones, I gently lowered us to the bed, laying her into the crook of my arm. She shifted slightly, pressing her face into my side, but stetching out on her back.

Carefully, I found her left wrist, the one closest to the heart monitor and IV line that needed to be put into her, and pulled it out a little, being extra careful that I didn't hurt her as I leaned over from my position on her right.

I looked up to the doctor, and he took the IV line from the nurse, and came over, sitting down on the stool, held her hand, and stuck the needle gently into the vein on the back of her hand. The nurse handed him a piece of tape, and he placed it over the tube, and what little of the needle that was sticking out, to hold it in.

With a slight hesitation, he peeled up the corner of the shirt again, to get a look at the wound. After a minute of gently probing around it, he spoke. "All the stitches have broken, and it looks like it sliced some of the skin around the…stab wound?" He said, the last part a question. His eyes flickered between me, Ranger, Junior and Steph, waiting for an answer.

After a thoughtful pause, Ranger must've figured that'd be okay to tell him, because he gave him a 'yes'.

"Okay," Dr. Kansler said, looking down at the bruising around and near the stab wound, that was the distinct shape of a boot. His eyes widened ever so slightly, and he moved his fingers to push and pull at the skin gently. He didn't say anything about it, just took a deep breath, and motioned for the nurse to pass him some supplies.

Carefully, he prepped to stitch her up, washing the area, and threading the needle with surgical thread. He looked at the wound, then starting at the top of the wound, closest to her head, he slid the needle through her skin, and started to sew the two sides together.

The process was slow going from my point of view, though it was a mere half an hour. For the last five minutes, Jade had started squirming slightly, as if waking up, but the doctor assured me she wasn't going to, not for another ten minutes. Apparently the needle that the nurse had injected into the IV line was a mild sedative.

When the doctor finished, and tied it off, cutting the extra medical thread, and placing butterfly Band-Aids across it, along with a thing medicated gauze that, along with the stitches, would dissolve into the blood stream.

Another five minutes later, and my left arm was starting to loose feeling from where her head pressed down on a vein. She body was shifting again, and her Adam's apple was bobbing up and down as she swallowed repeatedly. I watched her eyes move rapidly behind her lids, and for the briefest time, I wondered what was going on n her mind. But that didn't last, it really was brief, because suddenly, like a light switch, she went from shifting and acting like she was trying to wake up, to being still and barely breathing, her body stiff. Shit. _Shit_. I'd seen that before…she was awake, ahead of schedule, but probably because her body was used to the drug.

Everyone in the room, me and the doctor included could see, and hear as the machine skipped a beat, then went frantic. Quickly, as if snapping out of her trance, her eyes popped open, and she ripped the IV from her hand, hand not stopping it's swing away from her hand as she used the momentum to lash out at me.

Keeping in mind that her ribs were tender, and fragile, I ducked the first swing, then caught her hand when it came back. I rolled over quickly, pinning down her legs with my body, and trapping her other hand in one, waiting patiently as her eyes unglazed, and focused on me, her eyes locking with mine, confusion, and panic in them. Carefully, I released her hands, and slid off of her, slightly embarrassed at how I had stopped her. I listened to the sound of her breathing, and the heart monitor, as they both calmed to a normal rate.

Now standing back a bit from the bed, I watched as the doctor stepped forward, pulling out a pen light from his pocket. "I need you to follow the light." He said, after briefly shining it in each eye. He swayed it side to side, and then up and down at a relatively snow rate, and nodded. "Good." He mumbled. "I think you're gonna be fine, just make sure to keep those stitches clean, and to take it easy. You don't want to further aggravate your ribs while they're trying to heal, and you definitely don't want to pop anymore stitches." He paused, turning from Jade to where Steph and Ranger stood. "Her discharge papers are out front, in the lobby, along with any other forms you need to fill out." He paused again, a small smile coming on his face, though when he spoke, he was completely serious. "I hope I never see you again." Then he left.

I looked over at Ranger, who was looking between Steph and Jade. "Me and junior can stay with her, you two go and get the paper work filled out." I told them.

Steph nodded. "Thanks." She said quietly, then started back toward the way we had come in, Ranger trailing a short distance behind her, giving her space, but still being a presence.

11393—

Okay, so I had to stop there, because I've been trying to get this chapter done since Saturday. It's not coming. I've been too stressed apparently…with it at the semester point, I have PE instead of health, and I'm worried about it because I don't have a full range of motion in my right shoulder, seen as I, being one to play hard; have bruised the bone, four times, each time, landing myself in a sling each time. I've sprained, twisted and bumped EVERY bone in my body, wrists, ankles and ribs mainly (ribs hurt like a bitch I mkust say) but it heals…unfortunately, my shoulder keep getting re-injured, and I haven't had the full range of motion since 5th grade. I think I'm gonna flunk the weight lifting and push ups. I can run though  Friday we're gonna do the first mile and a half run. I'm SIKED. I have been since I found out we were gonna do it in the beginning of the year.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a post out Sunday, no promises though, only that I WILL have a post sometime next week.

Peanut

_ERIN_


	14. Leaving the Hospital

Okay, so I didn't think that I was going to be able to get this

Okay, so I didn't think that I was going to be able to get this out, because here I am, writing this chapter up at Pondicherry, dealing with who me and Jenelope(Jelly/Jenell) call the 'epic bitches'. They're not only younger than us, but they act like it. Mumbling about things, mimicking. Me and Jenelope just roll our eyes and flick them off when they're not looking. My iPod, and homework were the only refuge(not counting Jelly. We went sledding, yeah, there was this awesome track, an epic one, and when we went down (twice apiece) she got cut up, and I got what could only be called a concussion from slamming my head on the cold, hard ice, after my sled decided that I needed to go flying. Yeah, ow. Anyway, here is the chapter...Oh, and that 1.5 mile run I had on Friday...it was epic. I got an 'EXCELLENT' score, as it was named on the sheet, of 12 minutes and 55 seconds. It was fun.

I lost internet **Tuesday AND Wednesday AND Thursday AND Friday AND Saturday AND Sunday**, BEFORE on Monday(January 28th) I was babysitting from a little after I got home, until 9PM, and I was EXAUSTED, so I went to bed early.

Special thanks to those whom have reviewed, I can't name them…so...THANK YOU A BUNCH.

Without further ado...

Chapter 14

My head was pounding, and my body ached, my side mainly, as the drugs attempted to wash themselves out of my system. When Lester and Junior stayed in the room, while Ranger and Steph left to do the paperwork, I sighed, and looked down to the IV that they had left in me, even though the doctor said I could leave. I groaned lightly as the world spun, causing everything to have a slight blur to it. I flopped my head to the pillow, then sat back up a little, looking at the line, taped against my skin.

With a grimace, I peeled the tape off just enough to be able to pull the needle from my skin, sliding smoothly against it as it left me. When it was totally out, I moved to the pads stuck to my chest taking my heart rate. I reached over and clicked off the monitor before ripping the pads off like a band-aid, gritting my teeth in the process. When there was no sign that anything had ever been attached to me, but a dot of blood, and a few circles of slightly sticky feeling skin, I flipped the covers off and swung my legs off the bed, all in one movement. 

My feet touched the floor, and I stood, using the momentum from getting my legs off the bed to pull me up. The world tilted violently, knocking me off balance as black dots danced in front of my eyes, effectively blinding me. With my senses out of whack, I felt as if gravity had become stronger, buckling my knees and bringing me toward the floor at an increasingly fast pace that had me worried.

Suddenly, I felt two sets of warm, large and string hands clasp me under the arm pits, and drag me back up, then slowly lowering me to the floor. As I was settled on top of long legs that were stretched across the floor. As the black dots faded away, I could make out a figure in front of me, and finally, see more than a shadow of black that signified that it was one of Ranger's men. They cleared even more, and I could put a name to the face that had now come into focus. It was Bobby.

I started to squirm from the arms holding me, but the bands across my stomach and arms kept me exactly where I was. Everything was slightly foggy, causing everything, in turn, to be foggy. I took the act, though I could easily assume that the person holding me down was Lester. Panic flooded my mind when the arms tightened as I once again tried to pull away. One arm was looped around my waist, setting up high under my breasts, while the other was across my lower stomach, hand splayed protectively across my side, where something padded was taped to the skin on my side. 

I whimpered helplessly as the drugs that were trying to leave my system continued to slow down my reactions to everything, and impairing my strength. Attempting to leave was futile. It was impossible, and even implausible...I think it was at least. My breathing was labored as the adrenaline ran through me, speeding my heart up, and maybe even pushing the fog away a bit, though not enough for me to suddenly be able to lift a car or get free of Lester's like-steel grip. 

His breath was warm on the side of my neck, and ear, while his lips moved in silent words. Focusing, I could start to make out some of the words, until I could hear what he was saying in the soothing and comforting way. "Jade, come on, stay with me. I'm not gonna hurt you, you know that. Shhh, nothing is going to hurt you, but I need you to sit down so you don't hurt yourself. The sedative is still wearing off, it's going to be a bit longer before you can walk in a straight line, just take it easy." He paused, pressing his nose to the crook of my neck and taking a deep breath, his body sagging when he realized that I understood him. "Lets get you some clean clothes, and then deal with getting you dressed, because that is no longer sterile." He said, lifting his hands and fingering the blood-drenched article.

Lester stood and he and Bobby pulled me up together, and setting me on the bed. Bobby remained silent, but nodded to Lester, and sat down next to me, looping his arms around me like Lester had, and hauling me across the bed into his lap, my back to his chest. Lester strode from the room, and after wondering where he was going for a minute, I gave up, and leaned my head back on Bobby's chest, letting my eyes slide shut. Bobby didn't react at first, but after a minute or two, he seamed more comfortable about me being on his lap than he was before.

It was even more minutes before Lester walked back in, his stride long and confident. After peeling m eyes open, I took a long deep breath and sat m head up slowly as to not get dizzy.

He slowed as he got closer to the bed, looking hesitant, and completely contradicting his steps. "Uh...I," He coughed a little as he was slightly uncomfortable with what he was saying. "I really know what you liked to wear, so I 'kinda just grabbed the first few things I could find." He shifted as he showed me the clothes he had clutched in his hands. 

I reached for them, then opened and closed my hands as if trying to grab for them. He got the hint and gave the clothes a light toss. They, as expected, landed square in my lap. I picked up the shirt first and opened it, looking at the red and black design on the long-sleeved shirt. I smirked slightly at it, and set it down as I reached for the pants that I could already tell were black. Upon picking up the pants, I could tell that they were one of the two black cargo pants that I owned; though only one of the pairs had come with me. 

I felt my face heat up as I thought about where the pants were in the bag. He'd have had to dig through not only the shirts, but the bra's and underwear and even socks to get to any of the pants. The thought of Lester going through my undergarments, and what he might of thought, had my face heating even more, surely turning a color that rivaled the red of a stop sign.

"Uhhhh…thanks." I muttered, keeping my head down in embarrassment. Wiggling a bit, I managed to get Bobby arms from around me, though I'm pretty sure that if he needed me to stay put, or even wanted me too, then I wouldn't have been getting up.

I walked a few steps slowly and carefully, Lester and Bobby at an arm, ready and alert in case I got dizzy. When we made it to a bathroom not far away, they both stopped, Lester turning toward me. We're not going in, but no locking the door." He said, his piercing eyes making contact with mine.

I nodded, looking back down as I felt my cheeks and chest heating back up. I turned abruptly, ignoring the slanted look the floor took as my eyes crossed with dizziness, and opened the bathroom door, slipping in. The door shut hard as I leaned against it, creating a satisfying thud. I glanced at my reflection in the mirror directly across from the door, and over the sink, taking in the red on my cheeks and chest where the heat was. 

Carefully, I unbuttoned and zipped my jeans, and pushed them down my legs, bending minimally. When they were around my ankles, I toes at them, nudging them the rest of the way off. I peeled my shirt off next, dropping the soggy shirt on the ground next to the equally grimy pair of pants. It was only after getting my black cargo pants on that I noticed the bare state of my feet. I groaned lightly, regretting it instantly when the door pooped open, Lester rushing in to aid me. 

I was silently thanking the gods that I didn't even believed exist that I had chosen a white sports bra to put on _over_ the gray bra was wearing.

"Lester!" I yelped spinning around, and promptly loosing balance and pitching forward. Lester's arms wrapped under my armpits, balancing me until I was able to get good footing. Slowly and with great hesitation, he pulled away, taking a step back.

"Are you okay? I thought you were hurt?" He asked.

"I'm fine, now get out!" I yelled, my body turned away from him, glancing at him from over my bare shoulder and looking for my clean shirt at the same time. "And give me my shirt." I told him., pointing at the clean shirt folded by the door. 

He took two steps back and grabbed the shirt, tossing it to me. I caught it easily with my left hand shaking it open and shoving my right arm through before my left, and pulling it over my head, and using both hands to pull it down as I turned back to him.

I was grumpy and embarrassed, and that made me angry. "Where are my shoes?" I asked, temper flairing when he gave me a slightly innocent look.

"I have no idea." He said.

"Then find me someone who does." I gritted out. I started forward, attempting to brush past him.

11393

It was another ten minutes before anybody got me some shoes, and five more to finish the paperwork. My temper had cooled and the adrenaline had flushed the drugs from my system, leaving me exhausted. I rubbed my now red eyes as I staggered to the car, Lester and Bobby hovering on my sides. I let my eyes shut as I walked, simply to block out the cool night air that whipped by my face.

My legs felt like they were rubber, and every step seemed to take forever. When I felt as if I was going to pass out, I gave a small groan, and latched my arms onto Lester's shoulder, resting my head on it as well. He stopped moving, and an arm came around my waist, then my feet left the ground as gravity seemed to shift. I turned onto my side slightly, pressing my nose into his chest as I let myself drift into a sleep.

_LESTER'S POV_

There was a small noise behind me as Jade's steps became slower, her body drooping more as her breathing slowed. Suddenly, a warm, small hand clasped my shoulder, and Jade's head appeared in my peripheral vision, her cheek resting on my shoulder, eyes drifting shut slowly. When I saw her features start to soften, I slid my arms around her waist, and squeezed slightly as I picked her up, then twisted her so she was cradled in my arms like a child. She turned, just slightly, pressing her face into my chest and taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly.

I continued walking toward the car, glancing over at Bobby, then over to where I knew Ranger and Steph were walking.

Once I got Jade in the car, I pulled myself up and in, settling her comfortably against me. Bobby got in the front seat again, but instead of Ranger getting in Shot Gun, Junior did so, causing me to raise my eye brows. Steph and Ranger piled into the middle seat, Ranger leading against the locked door, and Steph leaning against him.

With a few questions, answers and comments along with a few sideways glances, the car took off. We were going to have to go to the store later, or tomorrow.

11393

The next two of the three hours in the car were uneventful, and we were hoping it to stay that way, unfortunetly, it was late, and everybody was hungry, especially considering the fact that it was already almost midnight. It was doubtful that there was going to be a lot of places to get a decent meal that were open at this hour, but we swerved into town to see what we could find for a place open twenty-four hours a day.

It took close to fifteen minutes to find a small deli that was open 21 ½ hours a day. Stopping close to the door, but not straight in front of it, Bobby stopped the car and pulled out the keys. I hope this works for you guys, but I'm getting something now before I eat off my own arm."

When Ranger and Bobby and Steph and possibly Junior started talking, I was already tuning them out. I looked down at Jade, her hair knotted around her face, lips slighly parted, face contorted with thought. 


	15. The Safe House and the Deli

Sorry it's so unbelievably short, I realized that I've been making theese so short, so, I'll put a vote out, a new chapter every week, most likely a bit longer than theese, or everyother week, longer? You vote? Or, you can I choose, but it's up to you guys, really.

No reviews to the last chapter! Gah! Seriously. I was gone for **3 **months and thats what happens? **eye roll** I miss you guys, I really did, I promise I'll march over to SusCom and drag them here by their _ears_ if they ever take Internet away for that long again, okay?

Without Further Ado...

11393

Chapter 15

The next two of the three hours in the car were uneventful, and we were hoping it to stay that way, unfortunately, it was late, and everybody was hungry, especially considering the fact that it was already almost midnight. It was doubtful that there was going to be a lot of places to get a decent meal that were open at this hour, but we swerved into town to see what we could find for a place open twenty-four hours a day.

It took close to fifteen minutes to find a small deli that was open 21 ½ hours a day. Stopping close to the door, but not straight in front of it, Bobby stopped the car and pulled out the keys. I hope this works for you guys, but I'm getting something now before I eat off my own arm."

When Ranger and Bobby and Steph and possibly Junior started talking, I was already tuning them out. I looked down at Jade, her hair knotted around her face, lips slightly parted, face contorted with an expression between relaxed and active, almost as if dreaming. Most likely she was.

"Jade." I whispered, smoothing some hair from her face. "Jade, we're stopping to get food. You need to wake up." When I felt the muscles in her neck, back and shoulders start contracting as they tightened, I spoke again, gently, but a bit louder. "It's Lester, Jade, can you open your eyes for me?" Her eyes shifted, lids opening only a fraction, then gliding shut, her body loosening back up.

"Okay." I said, more to myself than her. "Thats a start." I paused. "Can you sit up?" I asked.

Her head moved in the slight sign of a nod, and I carefully slid my hands under her shoulders to help prop her up, and shift her so I could see her. I watched as her eyes finally opened all the way, her eyes sluggish and groggy from the earlier events. I waited patiently as she blinked and looked around, her eyes taking everything in.

"Where are we?" She asked.

I thought for a moment. "About an hour drive from the safe house. We'll go out to get groceries tomorrow morning, but everyone's getting pretty hungry." I paused. "Think you can walk?"

_JADE'S POV_

Everything was just a little hazy from the sedatives and the adrenaline wearing off, and just sleep in general. I brought my hands to my eyes and rubbed the sleepies out of them before blinking a few more times. I scanned the area again, my head clearer than before. In the car, in front of a deli, me and Lester...hungry. Ooh, food.

My stomach grumbled and a wide grin stretched across Lester's face. He kissed the top of my head and pulled me toward the door. "You remind me so much of Steph sometimes." He said, shaking his head.

The little deli was small, but open. The right were stand up refrigerators to keep a large selection of Soda's, juices and alcoholic drinks cool. The floor was a red and white tile, and the counter was a yellowish white top, with red siding, keeping the whole place looking like a country kitchen.

We all settled our own orders, mine being a simple roast beef, cheese, green peppers, black olives and cheese Italian, so oil or pepper or salt. Steph got a steak sandwich, and Lester and Ranger got Italians. Junior got a sandwich, steak, lettuce thing, that was a combination of both a steak sandwich and an Italian.

Back in the car with our sandwiches, I settled in for the rest of the trip, though only an hour too long, seemed like an eternity more in this god forbidden car. "After this," I told lester. "I'm never, ever getting in a car again."

He looked over at me. "What about going to the grocerie store?"

"I'll walk."

"Getting back to Trenton?"

"I'll fly."

"And getting to the airport?"

"Bike."

He paused. "Okay, how will you know how to get there?"

"Maps, signs, I've navigated places before. I'm not two."

He held his hands up in defense. "Never said you were." He said, then took a big bite of his sandwich, talking around it. "Just saying thinking that it might be a little harder since there isn't anything near the safe house for at least two miles, then you'd have to get back when you don't know the address."

I glared at him. "I hate you. Shut up."

"Hey," he said in defiance. "What'd I do?"

She had her face turned away from him, causing him to believe that she was _actually_ mad at him. He was worried. He, for once, was at the other end of the joke, and he was worried that he'd set her off, and was nervous.

_Steph's POV_

I glanced back at the raised voices, to see Jade's head turned away from Lester, her body tense as she tried not to laugh, hand over her grinning mouth, and a very worried Lester behind her.

I turned away so as not to laugh and give it away. I watched through the review mirror as best as possible from my position against Ranger in the middle-back seat. I elbowed Ranger gently, snapping my head toward the two in the back, hinting him to look. I watched as he glanced back, took it in, and then as the corners of his lips twitched in amusement, as sparkle lighting his dark eyes.

Caught up I just stared at him, eyes locked. His lips turned into a a full out smile as he leaned down and brushed his lips against mine. "You're gonna miss it." He whispered, nipping at my lips. I stopped the moan that almost escaped.

Finally, I glanced back, and watched as Lester shifted cautiously, and pulled on her shoulder to turn her toward him, so he got a full look at her trying to hold it all in. The shock registered on his face in a confused look. "Wh-what?" He managed to stutter out.

She let go, tilting her head back and holding her side as she laughed historically. "GOT YOU!"

After a couple more chuckles, she quieted and just held her side tightly, grimacing. With a smile, I laid my head down on Ranger's chest and closed my eyes. I felt his lips against my hair, and smiled even more, letting myself drift to sleep.

Jade's POV

Pain was radiating from my side, but I was enjoying the moment to much to care. I held my side tightly, and leaned back against the SUV window, not minding when I felt the window disappear and a warm body replace it. I assumed it was Lester who was holding me, and I didn't mind, he was cool. I squeezed my eyes shut, and laid there. His mouth was at my ear, and I heard him whispering to me.

"That wasn't very nice, Jade." He whispered. I only smiled. I felt him shake his head and kiss the top of my head gently, like caring for a loved one.

I didn't give it another thought as I fell to sleep.

The next time I resurfaced, it was only half way, and all I could get were hushed voices, one giving order, others replying. I felt myself moving, on land. Warm arms were cradling me to their chest like a safeguard from the bitter cold air. I shifted, pressing closer to the warmth. The person attached to the warm arms and warm body, spoke, causing vibrations to run through his chest. All I got out of it was laptop. Don't forget the laptop? Yeah, don't forget the laptop. Wait, my laptop? They couldn't touch it, they'd break it, or forget it, and then it'd be borked because of the cold. Oh god, a borked laptop.

Broken, AKA borked, is bad. Especially if it's my laptop. I like my laptop don't I? I do.

I struggled to move, to make my body cooperate. "Shhhhhh." The warm thing whispered. "You're okay and it's okay. Your laptop will be brought in. Go back to sleep." It said, as if reading my mind.

I could only comply. Right?

It was black.

Everything.

Everything was black. Wasn't it? Or was it my eye lids sheilding me from the light?

I attempted to lift my eyes lids, but when finding it too hard, I gave up, took a deep breath and slowly tried to pull them open again. This time, they opened, and _I_ shut them when light flooded my senses. Opening them for the third time, I found myself in a strange room. It had a bed and a dresser, along with a mirror. By the dresser was a pile of stuff, one in particular, my laptop case, was sitting on the dresser with a cord running between it and an outlet.

I jumped up in fear.

_Oh god, please say they didn't plug my laptop in and leave it in the case, please, please, please, _I silently begged.

I ripped open the lid of the case, and saw, in all of its glory, my laptop, sitting there, on top of a hard board I had brought along, and was in one of the pockets. I sighed in satisfaction that my laptop wasn't going to overheat or light something on fire, and walked curiously towards one of the doors attached to the room.

Opening it, I found a dark blue and white tiled bathroom. There was a sink, a toilet, shower, and a shelf with dark blue towels built into the wall. A window with the design that made it hard to see through, was letting in light.

I left the door open, and walked back into the room, curiously glancing at the two windows in the room, larger than the one in the bathroom, covered with dark blue curtains. I noted the white walls with a the same dark blue color as the bathroom and curtains was painted around the top of the room, and on the quilt that covered the bed.

Turning to the other door, I opened it slowly, cautiously looking out into what appeared to be a hall. The carpet was a brown, and the walls had a dark wood striped horizontally across the top and bottom that brought out the white walls.

Moving another step, the floor creaked ever so slightly, and I froze, then continued on, stopping once again when I heard an almost silent step on the carpet. Slowly I turned around.

_OMG, shocking, I had to end, I know it's already late, but I have new TOYS!It's for Sims2 and I is excited-it's so I can post pictures of the safe house for you all. :):) They'll blinked to my page here, when I have the pictures up. :) Sound good? I hope so, don't forget to tell me what you think the length/time for posting should be, I love opinions and reviews. PLEASE!LOVE ME BACK! :)_

PEANUT/ERIN-The Epic Sock Owner


	16. Food and Safe House Pranks

A broad figure stood in a completely darkened doorway leading to an equally darkened room. The light from the room I had walked out of was the only light in the hallway, and it gave the figures' shape a human form.

For a moment I stood stalk still, then took a step back, not able to be positive that this was the safe house, and was therefore unable to determine if this 'figure' in front of me was a threat or not.

I went with threat and took a large step back before turning and running down the barely visible hallway. I managed to turn last second, into an open door, right before hitting a wall face on. I slammed the door shut, locked it and took a step back.

I looked around the room, turned the light on, finding the switch only by luck and touch, and looked around againseen as I was actually able to see this time. I was in a bathroom. No windows. No frills. Sink, toilet and shower, and a small dispenser of the foamy soap that turns into foam as it comes out of the dispenser.

I rubbed my hands over my face and sat on the closed toilet lid. My eyes burned and my head pounded slightly from running.

There was a soft knock at the door, and a voice came through the door.

It was Lester. "Jade?" He asked. "You okay? It was just Junior, he didn't mean to scare you?" His voice with thick, as if he'd just woken up, most likely meaning that Junior had woken him after I had been all wussy and ran into the bathroom.

Stupid stupid stupid, I chanted. Of course I was in the safe house, where the hell else would I be? I slammed my palm against my forehead silently.

"Jade?" Lester repeated, his voice filled with worry. "Please say something. I don't know if you're okay or not through the door."

"I'm okay." I mumble forgetting that there was a door between us.

"What was that?" He asked.

I stood, briefly checked my face in the mirror to make sure I look at least slightly presentable, and opened the door slowly. "Sorry." I said "I didn't mean for you to get woken up." I added, flicking my eyes up at Junior who stood behind Lester, hands in his pockets.

"It's okay." Lester said. "Are you okay though?"

I nodded, I was okay when I was locked in the bathroom, but I didn't feel quite 'okay' out here. I looked down the hallway, noticing that the lights had been turned on, and I could see more than just the color of the carpet and walls. I could see the doors that littered the hallway, and the lights that came out of the walls in a semi cone shape.

Nobody moved, and I shifted from foot to foot, thinking. I felt my stomach start to growl, and pushed it out to keep it from making noise. Might as well tell them myself instead of having my stomach broad cast it and wake up anyone who might be sleeping.

I glanced up at lester, feeling my face heat up ever so slightly, what it did when I asked for things in an uncomfortable situation like this. Although, my situation had never been just like this.

"I'm hungry." I mumbled.

Lester's eyes furrowed as he stared down at me from his tower height. Well, not that towering. He was only like half a foot taller at most. Still, he had to look down and I had to tilt my head up. It was somewhat even.

"Ranger said there were some MRE's here, lets see what we can find."

"Okay." I told him, then glanced over at Junior, keeping an eye on his position and at least attempting to have him not notice what I was doing. It was unlikely that THAT was gonna happen though. From what Steph said about the Rangemen they always knew everything.

Although...she was proven wrong when Lester didn't know what I said through the door. They don't know EVERYTHING, they just know what they can hear or see and put together.

Lester stopped moving in front of me and I walked into him, causing me to fall because of my already messed up balance. I started to brace for the hit, but ended up trying to throw myself to the left when unfamiliar hands reached to stop my fall. They caught me under the armpits, stopping my tense body from hitting the floor or anything else.

They hands that most likely belonged to Junior stood me up, made sure I was balanced enough, and pulled away, palms facing me in a non-threating way. I saw Lester turn to look back at me, and take in Juniors position, and hands. Lester moved, just shifting his weight to turn, and I flinched. My muscles were bunched up so tightly they were shaking.

"Jade," I heard Lester say. "you need to breath. No ones going to hurt you. You're fine, and safe."

I swallowed hard, and nodded. "I know, I'm sorry." I said as angry tears blurred my vision, making me even angrier.

What a LOSER, I thought to myself.

When my energy started running out from holding my whole body so tight, and emotion over came me, I dropped to the floor, sobbing.

I saw Lester crouch down in front of me through blurred vision and tears. "Jade," He whispered. "It's okay, don't feel bad, Jade."

"I'm sorry, I don't, I don't know why I'm even crying." I said, gasping out the end.

"I do." Lester declared. "Jade, You didn't do anything wrong. You ran from what you didn't know, you ran from SOMEONE you didn't know, it's perfectly rational. There is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about," He paused. "I'm not mad at you, and I am positive that Junior isn't. If anything, I think he understands."

"I couldn't even let him touch me!" I said.

"Thats because you don't know him. You're tired, you're dizzy, drowsy even, and then someone you don't know is trying to touch you? It isn't your fault." He repeated.

"Come on. Lets get some food and we can talk some more at the table. No sense sitting here on the floor talking when there are perfectly good chairs placed everywhere in this place." He stopped what he was doing, completely stopping dead after he finished speaking. He locked eyes with me, his eyes holding a saddened and self-hating look. "Jade, do you know where we are?"

I froze. Shuddering, I managed to start to speak, though none of it was anything sure or positive. "The- the safe house?"

"Jade." I he whispered. "I am so sorry. Yes, this is the safe house in Maine that we were heading to. I carried you in here from the car, you were dead asleep. I should have left you a note or something." He was shaking his head guiltily.

"No," I said firmly. "you do not get to blame this on yourself. You're as much to blame as much as I am, which is apparently none. So bite your tongue."

The kitchen wasn't far from our position in the hallway floor. The walls were a light white green color, and the light wood that ran along the top and bottom of the wall accented the colors nicely. Everything in the kitchen went together. The wooden counters with a green marble top, the island counter looking exactly the same, with wooden stools covered in a dark green leather. Even the floor, a light green stone that had accents of yellow and white, that coordinated to the walls and curtains perfectly. The curtains were colored to look nice and match, but just from looking at them, one could tell that they weren't ordinary curtains. The rod holding them up was thick and sturdy, and was held into the wall in more than one way. The curtain was stiff, and it didn't sway in the artificial breeze that kept the room at a bearable temperature.

The stove and fridge looked expensive, though they most likely were, and the appliances that were lined down the counter looked equally as expensive. None of the room, or appliances looked as if they had been used very much, except for maybe a time or two.

Lester walked over to a light wooden door to the right of all the counters, and opened it. Inside, from my vantage point were lots and lots of Grey packages that were labels with a black type font. I looked in at them and started reading through some. Beef Stew? In a package? Uh...

"The pound cake is good." Lester said, holding out a package at me. When I grabbed it, it was soft but firm at the same time. "They aren't as bad as people make them out to be. They're no home cooked meal, but when it's starvation and these...these are perfect. They're full of nutrients you need too." He informed me.

Lester looked over my shoulder, holding a smaller package. "Still like peanut butter?" Lester asked.

I assumed he was talking to Junior, and that Junior had made some kind of affirmative movement because Lester tossed the package over my head. I turned to look at Junior who smiled at me as he caught the package with ease. He ripped it open, and squeezed the brown substance onto his finger, then stuck his finger into his mouth, and smiled even wider.

Suddenly, the pound cake didn't look too bad. I tried sniffing the package, but all I smelt was dust from the closet. Taking the time to look around at all of the small room, I took in the metal shelves that had boxes on them, labeled MRE in black letters, just like the packages. Lester didn't seem bothered by the rooms appearance, leading me to believe that he'd been here before...I'd have to ask him that.

Lester's' body showed him frowning, though he was facing away. His shoulders slumped ever so slightly, and he pulled a box out, and grabbed the one behind it eagerly. He flipped through the packages until he pulled one out and smiled. "Aha." He said.

I gave him a quizzical look. "What?"

"Another pound cake." He said.

Lester stepped out of the room with me, and Junior went in, and started flipping through the packages himself, not having to look long before he found one that was suitable to eat.

I sat at one of the seats at the island counter while Lester grabbed some plates and bowls. All of them were from a set, the plate being white and the border of the plate being a green stripe that matched the entire kitchen set. He grabbed some shiny clean silverware, and came to the island. He set a small plate in front of me, along with a spoon and fork. "Didn't know which you preferred.

He set another plate next to me, and set a fork on it, then glanced at Junior, did his silent communication thing, and set a bowl and spoon in front of Junior, of which ripped open his package, poured the chunky brown and liquid content into the bowl, and carried it over to one of the appliances on the counter.

I was assuming it was a microwave, seen as it had the basic shape of one, and the buttons looked vaguely familiarly, but everything else looked like, some weird space alien machine. He opened what he obviously knew was a door, and stuck the bowl inside, punched a few numbers, and watched it rotate.

I took in the other little appliances. They all looked so... modern. Ultra, ultra modern. None of them looked even HUMAN. It was weird. Lester sat next to me, and opened his packet, and poured it onto the plate. The soft tan-like chunk was placed on the plate and he put the empty plastic on the counter in front of him, with the strip from the top he'd torn off, and grabbed his fork and took a large mouthful. I looked at him, slightly horrified.

"What?" He asked. "It's Pound Cake. I could probably just about live off of this stuff. Seriously, it's amazing...or as good as MRE's get, this is the best there is," He nodded to the packet in my hands. "Try it. Just rip at the dotted line. It's even user friendly." He flashed me a gorgeous smile. Isn't that nice of them? I think it is..." He trailed off as he spooned another large bite.

I looked at the Grey bag, and tested the dotted line. Sure enough, it pulled across without too much trouble, and I was able to place my rectangle on my plate. I poked at it with the fork, and tested it by touching my tongue to the very tip of one of the little prongs. When I didn't pass over and die, I tried a small bit.

It really wasn't that bad, just like Lester had said, it didn't taste GREAT, but it was food, and at this point that was all I needed because I was REALLY hungry. Life happens like that sometimes. In a matter of bites, it was gone. And I was still hungry. Lester told me to go grab another one, maybe try something else.

I opened he closet, and flipped through some of them, then settled on a chicken & dumplings I sat down after grabbing a bowl and tentatively poured it out, and evened it out so that it wasn't in a mound, then went to the supposed microwave and opened the door the way I saw Junior do it.

Thinking of Junior, I looked over to where Junior had settled down, and was calmly eating his Beef Stew.

I pushed the button Junior had, and watched it spin around on the tray. I jumped back when bursts of chicken and dumplings popped from the bowl. My back hit the counter right in front of Lester, and there were instantly hands on my waist, steadying me. "You okay?" Lester asked.

I nodded until I got my voice back. "Yeah. Fine, just surprised me." I spared him a glance, and managed to get a look of concern from him as he studied me.

The microwave thing beeped and I struggled with trying to pull open the door for a second, then realized I had to push the door button, though I was confused about why seen as I didn't have to to open it to put it in...

I took the bowl out, and carried it precariously around, put it on the counter and walked around the counter before sitting and picking my spoon back up to enjoy it as much as possible. Although the pound cake was great, it was not filling.

"So, are you feeling better?" Lester asked, scrutinizing my face, his eyes taking in every

The thing I had realized about Lester on the way here, probably it was just my imagination and dreams that I had thought it through, but I found that though his boyishly cute features made him look non-threating, and his messy hair gave him the care free look, he was deadly. He was fast, and smart, and he knew how to get what he wanted, even if that meant using his looks to do so. Woman fell to his feet and walked into things when he walked into a room. They tripped over their feet and others' when he smiled, and they wrote the wrong things in their check books when he spoke sweetly to the lady behind the counter helping him with his purchase.

This was one of the smart silently times, and he would use it. He looked non-threating and open, strategically placing his palms-up hands and angling his body so that he looked open to being talked to.

I studied how he reacted and moved as I answered his so eloquently put question. "Yeah," I told him. "never been better. Actually, the day I met this guy, a really good friend of mine, was better, but you get my point..." I took a breath and smiled. He had watched me speak as if it was the most interesting thing he'd ever heard, and then when I started talking about my friend, his eyes flashed black momentarily before masking; his face never shifting.

I was about to go at it again, to keep testing his limits of how much bull shit he'd take before he called me on it, when there was a slight commotion in the hall.

"Jade?!"

It was Steph. We watched her come out of the hallway hesitantly, then have all unsureness leave her as she saw us sitting at the counter eating, and came over. She sat next to Lester, who had since turned, his posture shifting from what it had been before, and moving to one that was less visually open. It was a comfortable looking placement, slouched back, arms lazily laying crossed on the island, and one leg propped up onto the bar attached to the island, the other on the floor.

"Wheres the food?" She asked, looking around.

Lester gestured to the door with all the MRE's behind it, and Steph slid off the stood and moved towards it, opening it and peering inside.

"This isn't food," she complained. "this is military stock food to keep you alive, not happy. Food is supposed to make you happy." She looked over at us with a distasteful expression, and then turned back to the cupboard and started flipping through them. "I can heat these up, right?" She asked from within' the closet.

"You sure can." Lester replied.

"Good," she said as she came out of the closet with another of the now familiarly Grey packet, and walked along the appliance-riddled counter, looking through each of the cupboards.

"Bowls and plates are above the food processor." Lester told her helpfully."

"Ah." She said, opening the right door and pulling out a bowl. She dumped the red chunky contents of her packet in it, and looked among the appliances before settling on the microwave, or the one she assumed to be the microwave. She pushed buttons on it until she turned it on, and looked at it. "This isn't the microwave is it?" She asked.

"Ah," said Lester. "the microwaves next to the blender on the right."

"Right," Steph said. "I totally knew that." She moved to the right appliance, fiddled with it, got the food in and managed to get the timer going down, but have it not actually on and cooking. She pushed clear, a few more buttons and smiled triumphantly when the light turned on and the tray inside started turning in circles.

When the microwave beeped, Steph still looked overly happy about mastering the alien microwave, and easily took the bowl out, testing to see if it was too hot to hold first. She set it on the island like I had done, and walked around and sat in her seat, pulling the bowl to her. She looked at the bowl and sighed.

"Where exactly are the utensils?" She said.

"I'll get it for you, beautiful." Lester said, standing from the stool and walking around the counter with grace that Steph had never mastered. He set his bowl in the sink, and opened a draw to the left of the sink, pulling out a fork and a spoon. "Which do you prefer?"

"Both please." she told him kindly.

Lester gave her a strange look but set them in front of her and shut the draw. "So is Ranger up?" He said.

"Yeah, why?" Steph replied.

"Just 'cause I figured he'd be up with all of this commotion out here...he's normally more responding to that kind of thing."

Steph nodded. "He woke up when the bathroom door slammed." She said.

Lester glanced at me ever so quickly, just a flicker of his eyes, and a shift in his posture to point away from me. "Oh. Where is he then?" He asked, his voice showing curiosity.

"He took a shower and was gonna get something done, I don't know, maybe some paperwork, he was on the bed with his laptop." She told him, her face showing how puzzled she truly was.

'What do you want to bed that there is wireless Internet out here, and that he is checking out the passwords and user names to the accounts I left?' I asked myself.

11393

An hour later I was completely showered and lounging on the bed in a pair of thin pajama pants and a loose t-shirt. I pulled out my laptop and opened up wireless connections. Sure enough, there was an Internet connection named 'fuerza'. I found it fitting. 'Fuerza' means strength or force.

I clicked on the connection to select it and had it connect to it, then had to use my illegal program to get through the password.

I opened up the e-mail account linked to all the fake little site accounts, and flipped through the e-mails. Smiling, I shut the lid, and rolled off the bed gently, and padded out the door in search of Steph.

After our snack aka 'breakfast' Lest had gone and given me a tour of the rest of the house. He showed me where his room was, where Juniors was, and where Steph and Ranger were sleeping. I'd already seen the extra bathroom and the kitchen, so he showed me the living room, where I was bombarded with the sense that someone had decorated this room to a tea. Even the phone went with the room. There were even colored flowers in a vase, fake water drops glistening on the silk petals.

I knew the living room was where Steph would go, it had a TV with basic channels, two through fourteen, and a DVD and VHS player. I knew for a fact that someone had brought ghost busters along, I just hadn't figured out who yet, and when entering the living room this time, I found Steph sprawled across the couch, ghost busters flashing across the screen.

I stood silently for a second, and listened. I could faintly hear her saying most of the lines along with them. I laughed quietly when she started singing with it.

"Hey," I interrupted in a low voice. "Mom?"

"Oh!" She said, started, sitting up. "Yeah Jade?" She asked.

I looked around quickly. "Remember those fake passwords and user names I told you about leaving on this account?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah...did he get onto one?"

I smiled. "All of them." I told her mischievously. "You wanna see?"

Her grin widened. "Absolutely."

She followed me at a calm pace back to my room. I closed and locked the door, and sat on the bed, motioning for her to do the same. She did, and I moved the laptop between us, tilting the screen to an angle that she'd be able to see. I got into the e-mail again, and opened the first account I'd gotten an e-mail from. It was a gaming site, in which I had a profile, and had put little hearts and stars all over the profile. I showed her the fake page without logging in, and she laughed at how obvious it was that it wasn't mine, if you knew me.

I closed that one, making sure to save it and opened the next. This one was a face book, and I had written things on my profile that were so random it made Steph laugh. To see my fake account profile, I logged on with my real one, and viewed the page. I had in a relationship in the status bar, but I wasn't about to say anything about that, and moved to the next things. I was 16 years old and lived in a Hispanic part of Oregon. I had messages on the board from some friends who helped me set up the account, mainly the one from Matt was the one I liked. That message was planted, but damn, I still shuddered every time I read it.

-Hey sexy, I missed you at lunch today. Are you okay? Call me, love, I jut wanted to check in. Don't forget about Volley Ball after school. See ya there tomorrow, baby-

"Like it?" I asked. She took one last scroll through the page, laughing.

"Did your friends help you get the messages and stuff?" she asked.

"Yeah," I told her. "They're awesome like that." I paused. "Ready to see the next?"

She nodded and I promptly saved the e-mail, and opened the next. This went on for another ten minutes, until we had gotten through them all, there was only six of them, but it was good. We had him completely.

"So," I started. "what are my limits to his payback?" I asked.

She thought about it. "No permanent damage, and nothing that has even a chance of putting you in danger." She paused and smiled. "And I want to help with it." She told me smiling.

"Deal." I said. "So what do we want to do? Tar and feather, virus, change setting to his computer that will make him think he's lost everything?"

"If I get you his laptop for, say, an hour, could you do something to it?" She asked.

"It depends, most likely, yes, but it depends on what it is." I looked at her hard, trying to see through her head and read her mind. "What would I be doing?"

"Well," she started, trailing off with a smile.

Half an hour later, the plan was almost ready to go. Lester and Junior were in on it as well, helping plan to get Ranger to be focused on Stephanie.

Steph had put on the smallest bathing suit she had, and was persuading Ranger to go outside with her, to have some time alone, telling him that I'd be fine alone with Lester and junior. "They're perfectly capable of taking care of her. I trust them almost as much as I trust you. Come on..." She said, pulling him up, and tugging his arm until he obliged and changed into a pair of long knee length black swim trunks.

As soon as he was out of the house, I moved, standing from the couch and running for Steph and Rangers room. I glanced around for the laptop, and found it plugged into the wall, sitting on top of the dresser. I grabbed it, let it keep charging, and opened it up. It was logged off and you needed a password to get into it. "Shit." I grumbled. I tried a few that might work, then set it down, went to my room and grabbed my laptop, and some cords that I knew would connect our computers, making it possible to bypass his password for a bit, and get the password cracking program onto the computer.

Ten minutes later, I was through. Turns out his password was seemingly random letters and words until you turned it upside down and you could see STEPHANIE printed in upside down letters and numbers. I shook my head.

Continuing, I started going through the computer slowly, deleting the correct files, and hiding the others. That way, when he logged on, he would think that he lost all his programs and files, and then, if he opened up 'My Documents' or 'My Computer', then a program I sat and quickly wrote out, would shut the computer down. Everything he had was fine, really, and shutting down wouldn't effect them, but when he tried to turned the computer on, it'd act like there was no operating system on the machine at all.

I laughed, and continued writing out the code for the program. I was almost done, minutes from being done. Maybe two tops, when Junior stepped into the doorway.

I was kneeling on the floor, alternating between typing on my laptop and Rangers, and then staying on mine, when he spoke. "How close are you to being done?" He asked.

"Two minutes tops." I replied.

He nodded. "You've got about thirty seconds. We're gonna stall, be quick and get back to your room." He told me. He went out, and I heard Lester run outside and meet him half way.

"What are you doing back?" He asked. "You should spend all the time you can with Steph now, in case you don't have as much time later. This is the best chance you got, man. Take advantage of it. A beautiful girl in a bikini on a lake, with no one around for miles and you're coming back in?" He said astounding. "What the hell are you doing?" He finally asked.

"I just came to check on you guys. Wheres Jade?" In her room, I think she's playing a game, or watching a movie. Junior has been in there with her.

Jade could imagine his eyes narrowing suspicious as she typed in the last piece of code, downloaded it to his computer, and logged off his account, moving quickly back across the hall with her laptop. She plugged her laptop into the wall, and had just gotten onto the bed with her laptop open, laying comfortably, playing the first thing on you tube when the door knob twisted. "Jade?"

I looked up, pretending to be surprised. "Ranger? What are you doing back so soon? Go enjoy yourself." I said.

"What are you up to?" He asked.

"Just watching this video on youtube about some kninja like dude." I told him, glancing at the screen to make sure.

He took in the room, nodding, and finally left.

"I'll be back in a little bit." Ranger told Lester and Junior as he left.

I let my head drop to the bed, sighing, then laughing. We did it.

The door opened again, and they both came in, took in my state ad smiled. Lester started laughing with me. "Good job." He told me, his eyes dancing with humor.

We only stayed in my room for another couple minutes before running out to the living room with them, and flopping out on the couch with the spectacular plan of watching a movie.

"Do you like ghostbusters as much as your mom does?" Lester asked me, his face showing fear and curiosity at the same time.

I laughed. "Oh hell no. I've seen that movie half as many times as Steph has and I STILL hate it." I told him.

Lester looked relieved, then flopped down on the couch. We ended up agreeing on watching the fourth die hard movie, Live Free or Die Hard, laughing together every time they showed the hamster guys that hopped around the cage fighting Bruce Willis.

The credits were about to start rolling, when Ranger and Steph finally made their way into the house, both grinning like fools, causing Lester to stand up and move toward them, his movements like those of a kid. "Mom, Dad, there are innocent ears present! TMI!" He said, promptly covering his ears humming to block out anything Ranger would try to say.

As if expected, Ranger of course started to speak loudly over his annoying singing of which was off key and pitch. "You're just mad that you don't get a good fu-" His mouth snapped shut abruptly in the middle of his sentence, glancing at me.

I rolled my eyes at his stop. Lester finally stopped singing and dancing around, and uncovered his ears. Ranger started to retreat to Steph and his room, Steph lagging behind to give us a curious look, her eyes asking us silently if it was done. I nodded, smiling and gave her a hidden thumbs up. She smiled wider and followed him into the room. I stifled a giggle and sat on the couch backwards listening to the silence and waiting for the yelling or freaking out to come.

There was still silence, then for a moment we could hear a bare mumbling coming from the room. They were obviously talking, but it was hard to impossible to understand them.

I heard more ruffling, silence, and finally, silence again. After about thirty more seconds of silence, there was a curse, then another, and another, and the distinct sound of frustration coming from Ranger's lips.

I smiled and got up from the couch with a grin, and walked slowly to their door. I stopped out side it, and called in. "Everything alright, Ranger?" I asked.

"FUCK!" He screamed, then mumbled another 'shit'.

I heard the distinct sound of the bed creaking as he got off it, and his footsteps coming toward the door. I put on my best helpful, concerned innocent face, and waited. When the door opened, I was met by a very tall, towering Ranger in black sweats and a black t-shirt like he always had on.

He motioned for me to come in, and I did, moving around him gently, keeping just a hint of space, for my bubbles sake. "Whats wrong and what can I do to help?" I asked.

He scratched his head, and glanced at the laptop that lay on the bed as if thrown there. "uhh, I don't know, but I went to open a file, and I couldn't find it, or any of my files, and then I opened the documents folder, and the computer shut off. He paused, and I tried turning it back on and it comes up with some stuff about the F number buttons."

I fought to keep my look concerned. "Hmmmm." I paused. "Let me take a look at it." I said, playing it up.

He passed me the laptop, and looked at the black screen, pretending to Annalise it. "Looks like you don't even have an operating system." I told him as I looked up to see his reaction. There was nothing.

"What is the operating system and is it really that important?"

"Uhh, yeah, the operating system is the program that lets you be able to do anything on your laptop that would be valuable to you. Yours happens to be..." I trailed off, pretending to look for the sticker that told me what it was so he wouldn't guess that it was me. "Windows XP."

"Oh." He said. "That thing," he paused again. "so what do I do? Is it all gone?" He asked.

I glanced at Steph before looking Ranger right in the eye and flat out lying. "Yes. Everything is gone. This laptop is pretty much metal and plastic. You most likely got a virus from something, like maybe MySpace or FaceBook, or Gaia...those'd do it." I told him, all humor drying from my words.

My words were carefully used so that he got it and so that he would think his computer is useless. My plan was working, and I knew that it was the right thing to do because I didn't feel guilty or sorry in anyway.

Realization dawned on his face and his posture stiffened as his face softened. "Jade, I -"

"Shut up." I said, cutting him off mid sentence. Jerk. "I don't care about excuses." I paused, letting my flaring temper cool. "I'm gonna go take a nap or something. I'm tired, and if I 'help' you right now, then I am going to actually get rid of the files." I said before walking right out of his room, shooting mom the slightest look.

I could practically hear the gears in Rangers head turning, putting things together. The laptop broken, him being pushed to leave, me and that fake innocence...and of course that fact that I told him I'd make them really disappear, meaning that either I did it or knew about it, and since I was the only one in the house and most likely five mile radius who would know where to start to do that, it was most likely me.

I walked out the door and to my room, trying to NOT smile, but failing once the door to my room was safely shut and there was no way that Ranger would be able to tell that I was laughing. I was angry...not. Not when he thinks that he lost his entire computer, and everything on it.

Sighing, I laid on the bed on my back, and stared at the spiky stark white ceiling. I tilted my head to the side and continued examining them, curiosity peaking. How in the hell did they make the ceiling do that? How could they of have possibly painted up there?

I was not bothered for another ten minutes before there was a knock on the door, and I heard Ranger call through it. "Are you dressed?" He asked.

I paused. "Will you come in If I say I am? Cause in that case I'm having a nude party." I replied sarcastically.

I practically felt his growl. "I'm coming in." He warned, then opened the door, peering in. Seeing that it was clear and that I was just being a bitch, he came in and shut the door. He walked toward the door, and I, like the perfect teenager, I turned over, facing the opposite wall.

"Go away." I told him.

"I need to talk to you. To apologize." He clarified.

"You suck at apologizing but I'll forgive you anyway. Now go away."

"No." He said. "I am going to apologize, and you are going to hear me out with respect. Turn around." He told her.

"Screw you. You're not my father." I told him, moving to roll from the bed, my ribs and injuries tossed aside.

He caught my shoulder and rolled me gently the opposite way, so that I was facing him. He tugged me up into a sitting position. He moved over and sat next to me as well, looking me straight in the eye before speaking. "I'm sorry Jade, that I evaded your privacy. I had absolutely no right, and I apologize. I was curious about some things and instead of asking, I snooped on your computer after being specifically asked not to by you. I knew that the laptop was something you cherished, and I am really sorry that you felt the need to destroy my computer in retaliation for it." He glanced at the floor. "Will you accept my apology and forgive me? "He asked after looking back.

I was silent. "Yeah. I forgive you. I paused, thinking about how to say what I needed to get out, to make him understand. "My laptop is the one place that I can do anything I want without punishment, to a certain extent, but, it's also where I can go to forget everything. It's what I use when I have a bad day, and who I talk to when I'm sad." She laughed. "Yeah, I talk to an inanimate object because I can, and it's better than talking to humans." She locked eyes with him. "Your computer is fine. While you were out I hid your files. When you opened 'My Documents' your computer shut itself down and ran the program I had placed in a different partition on the hard drive. It showed what I wanted it to show. All of your files are completely intact, sitting wherever they were before you left." I moved to get up, bending at the waist to grab my laptop in the same movement.

I gasped, stopping and holding perfectly still, waiting for the pain to die down. "Ow." I mumbled when it had receded back far enough into my head to not be felt as pain, and to let me think. I continued getting up, then grabbed my laptop, keeping my back and side straight, protecting my ribs with one hand. I took the protecting hand away only when I needed to grab the cord to connect our computers.

"So, does Steph know about what I did?" Ranger finally asked, his face showing a hint of worry at what Steph was gonna do for revenge.

I smiled. "She knew about five minutes after you got off my computer. The passwords and accounts were fake ones I made, and when they are active, I get an e-mail. She knew minutes after the first account was accessed as well." I told him, my smile growing as I thought about what she might do in retaliation...like hold out on sex. No better way to threaten a man than to tell him no sex.

The thought only crossed my mind, and I smiled more, but then grimaced at the thought of my Mom having sex with anyone, let alone some that was probably a better father than my own.

Joe.

Oh boy, he was a whole other story. What kind of father, or even person could blame so much on one person. She wasn't even in the room when I went at the guy and got myself stabbed. If anyone, it was my fault.

At the thought of being stabbed, somehow I managed to make a connection to being shot at in the grocery store and not getting food.

"Ranger," I paused. "when can we go get food?"

He smiled. "You're definitely your mothers daughter." He told me.

Steph's POV

I growled at Ranger when he came into the room smiling after his talk with Jade.

He looked at me and just like that, his smile was gone. My head was reeling with ways to express my anger at him. Hitting him, yelling...holding out on sex. Oh boy. Who would that be worse on? Me or him? He could get any girl in the two hundred mile radius, hell, the entire state or country to give him a blow job.

I pushed that thought aside and prepared to rip his head off. "How dare you-"

"Wait." He said. "Hear me out." He paused, making sure that I was listening. "We talked it out, and got it sorted. I'm sorry for intruding on her private computer, I apologized, everything is cool. We're gonna head out to go shopping soon." He paused, and when I didn't start yelling again, he continued. "Get dressed."

I sighed and nodded at him before turning my back to him and making way for my duffel bag. I bent over for it, and started digging through it for a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, not getting far along when Ranger pressed up from behind me. I groaned at him, and unintentionally pressed my ass against him. I felt his mouth at my ear after he lifted me closer to upright.

"So are we okay?" He asked breathily into my ear.

"Not yet." I squeaked trying not to moan when he pushed my head aside and kissed behind me ear and down my neck.

"How about now?" he asked.

I bit my lip against another moan. His hand traveled down over the curve of my ass and around to the front of my thigh to the junction between them, pressing his fingers against me. A moan slipped out I caught myself trying to press against said hand.

"Mom! Dad!" Lester called playfully through the door. "There are minors in the house, now is not the time to apologize to each other. We don't want the little ones to hear. Especially since these walls really aren't sound proof."

Ten minutes later we managed to get everybody into the car and moving. In those ten minutes everybody got changed, added to their arsenal, put me into a semi-bullet proof jacket, took it off, and shoved me into the car in the safest possible place. They had me ON Lester's lap, and between Bobby and Junior. Steph sat up front with Ranger, who drove, and I just sat uncomfortable and stiff, keeping my eye on Bobby and Junior and Lester all at the same time.

Bobby had managed to be not seen for the entire morning and that, to me, was kind of sketchy. Why wasn't he seen? Hmmm.

"Hey Bobby?" I asked innocently.

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did, but you're good for one more, shoot."

"Where were you all morning? I didn't see you and there is no way you slept through everything, and all the commotion." I told him.

Seen as I was staring him straight into the eye, I was a little worried when his eyes flickered to the left, looking toward the front of the car. I looked over in time to see him catch Rangers eye, and saw the almost imperceptible nod of him head that he gave Bobby.

"I was out talking to some contacts I have down here on the whereabouts of your little stalker." He told me.

I froze. He called it MY stalker, which meant he knew that he was after me and not Steph.

"Oh." I mumbled, then shifted back ever so slightly, trying not to grind on Lester too much. I ended up just sitting tensely on Lester's lap, willing the ride to go faster.

Twenty minutes later we pulled up at the grocery store, obviously one different from the one we had been at before seen as it had been another two or three hours back.

The store was one called 'Wild Oats', and I had never heard of it before. From the look of the purple, green and tan building, I was assuming it had something to do with health foods.

It only took a couple minutes to get from the parking lot to into the main building, where Ranger assigned us places to go. We were buying in bulk, and splitting up to make it quicker. Ranger's group would get the main meals and some munchies, and my group would get snack and munchies and a few meals that pleased us.

Me, Lester and Bobby went one way, and Ranger, Steph and Junior went the other, each with our own cart being ready to fill it up.

First stop for us was fruits and vegetables. We all liked them to some degree, and we knew that Ranger's want some, so we grabbed a bunch of most everything.

Slowly but surely we made our way through the store, stopping in every isle and carefully analyzing the contents before choosing what we'd need.

When we were done, we wandered a bit for Ranger, Steph and Junior, finally finding them stacking eggs into the cart by the two dozens.

"You guys all done?" Ranger asked, briefly glancing over at us. He momentarily caught Bobby and Lester's eyes before moving back to what he was doing with his hands.

"Yep." Lester answered nonchalantly, his posture screaming to anyone who wasn't looking that he was relaxed and in control, but to anyone that did in fact know him, they'd see someone who WAS in control, but that was also totally aware of absolutely everything going on around him.

"How about you?" Bobby added, looking slightly curious yet also lethargic and with a hint of druggie-looking with his large drooping brown eyes.

Rangers eyes scrutinized his as he answered his question. "Just getting the last few things we need."

Steph smiled and danced in her spot, hopping from her right to her left foot and back, swaying ever so slightly as well. "Can you believe Ranger almost left without ice cream? And peanut butter, and green olives, and chips, and- well beer I can understand, but seriously? Chips? ICECREAM? Cake?" She looked horrified, as if just the thought of it scared her.

She shook her head emphatically.

I smiled and looked over at Ranger. "Your timing sucks." I told Ranger. Seen as Steph was already mad at him, you'd think that he wouldn't go and try to make her mad.

Realization hit Steph and she looked over at him, her look of disbelief from him forgetting dwindling down. "Thats right!" She called out, rounding on him.

"After intruding on my daughters privacy, you have the nerve to pick at me about my eating habits?" She was angry and in shock at the same time, every bone in her body radiating her disbelief.

"Steph," I said quietly, not meaning for that to be the result of what I had said. "it's okay. Really it is." I paused again. "We talked it out, okay?" I added when I got a disbelieving look from Steph.

Ranger nodded, seemingly content with what she had said to the matter, defending him and all.

I sighed, rubbing my hands over my face, my body feeling tired and hungry. "Are we good to go?" I asked Ranger.

He nodded. "Yep."

Lester grabbed Jade around the shoulders, slinging his arms up over her shoulder. "How ya doin' kiddo?" He asked playfully.

I shot him a look that could care, and shrugged the arm off. "Fine, ready to leave, but fine."

He didn't say anything in contradiction, thank god, and we made it to the check out counter, where we checked out just like we would anywhere else, except here we got strange looks as we pulled through checkouts with two arts full. The cashier and bagging boy eyed the carts and us, but neither said anything.

Smart move.

11393

How about that?

I'm thinking MAYBE a tedious every other week, with a nice long chapter like this one. I'm doing summerwrite, 150,000 words in 4 months, (May, June, July and August), so hopefully this'll help me get on routine? Not sure yet.

Thanks for being so patient. :D


	17. The Lake

Quick note before:

I will get back to Joe, I promise, there is a story about whats going on with him back in little ol' Trenton, but I'm getting to it yet. Most likely next chapter or one after I'll explain what going on. :D

Excuse the anger that may be shining through In the beginning of the chapter, I'm in a particularly angry mood at my mother, who is too lazy to find her own movie, her own socks, and wait for the dishes to dry or do them herself, so she's telling, wait, askingnot really me to do them.  
Right.

-Also, one scene in here has been planned since before I started writing this, so excited to write it! :D:D

Jade, Ranger, Junior, Lester, Bobby and Steph just checked out...skipping ahead to them back at the safe house. :D -Haven't put up pictures, but hopefully soon of the safe house, already made it.

Jade's POV

It took almost as many trips to get the groceries into the kitchen of the safe house as it did to get them all into the over-sized trunk of the SUV.

It would have taken a third less trips into either places if the macho men hadn't gone all he-men on me and Steph and kept us ducked in the car, then in the house, ordered to "stay."

Woof.

What did they think we were? Dogs? Like 'stay' would make us sit there. What was next? Roll over? Play dead? Shake hands? Cue major snorts. Right. Like that would ever happen.

As soon as the last bag entered the house -or at least that better have been how soon Lester came to free us- Lester did just that and came and saved us from our untimely death due to absolute boredom.

I followed Lester out of the room and into the kitchen, looking to help put stuff away, and possible snag some of the snacks I knew that we had grabbed.

I stopped at the edge of the kitchen, just barely inside of the suddenly small looking room. The kitchen that was once roomy was now packed with Ranger, Bobby, Junior and then Lester, who walked over to the other three men and stepped right into the routine they had going. Everything had already been unpacked and was sorted, and they were putting things away, food first, breads and pastas going in cabinets that were empty, can in the room with the MRE's, and anything that needed to be refrigerated, in the refrigerator.

Managing a glance in the fridge, I could see it getting quickly stuffed, except for an almost perfect rectangular cut out, left completely empty on the second shelf.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked, though I was almost positive there wasn't.

I saw Lester and Ranger look over at me, Lester flashing me and Steph a smile, then coming over to us. I took a step back, weary and unsure about the look I was getting. He was hiding something.

Something flashed in his eyes as he stopped coming loser, his smile momentarily faltering, and a look barely noticeable look of annoyance, and more of sadness passed through his eyes before it was coated with his false 'sparkle'. "Girls," he started, hands coming up open, hen gesturing to th side door. "You get to relax. It's been a stressful couple of days, and you two deserve some off time," he told us.

I looked out the back door he was gesturing at, the one Ranger and Steph had gone out earlier, and slowly moved towards it, glancing behind as I went.

I stopped just before opening the door. "You guys have done more than us. Why don't you guys o relax and we'll finish unloading everything?"

His smile grew momentarily. "We will come join you in a minute, your bathing suits are already down there, you can change in the shack."

I stopped and looked at Lester, then, glanced at Steph and walked through the door without any farther argument.

THIRD PERSON-

Steph followed Jade down to the water, trailing ever so slightly behind her child protectively.

Jade only let herself take lead for a few more steps before slowing to match steps with her mom. "Am I the only one that is worried about what the boys picket out for us to wear?"

"Nope," Steph replied, her glaze flickering over to Jade, taking in the slightly zoned out look on her face.

--

Lester turned on heal and went back into the kitchen, or at least closer to everybody else, and resumed helping unpack, until everything was put away except for the containers for juice, and the food for the barbecue.

When they were done with that, everybody seemed to already know what they needed to do, and went their own way. Ranger went to get the grill ready, bringing some of the food with him, and a pair of tonsils to tend to the food with.

Junior stayed and packed the cooler, dumping in a couple packages of ice, and some bottles of juice, along with all perishables items that might be needed with lunch.

Bobby went down the hallway to a closet and started grabbing some towels for everyone, and changing into his trunks before heading down to wear Ranger and the girls would be.

Lester changed into his swim trunks, and got some sunscreen and went down to the lake with everyone else, stopping on his way to help Junior carry the cooler down. He had put his bathing suit already as well.

By the time everything was set up at the side of the lake, the sun was just peeking at a noon spot in the sky, casting a bright yellow glow on the water, giving the salt-free liquid a beautiful crystal blue look. A slight summer breaze rustled the trees on the other side of the lake that had an upside down reflection in the water, the trunks of the trees looking as if they stretched out in two different trees, one a solid object, the other one merely a shimmering reflection of blue and green. By the land they were on, there was a dock that stretched out into the deep water with a slight current to it. The legs of the dock refracted in the water to look like they were broken, each wave making them shift around, though in reality they didn't move.

They were out of view of the house, and the lake wasn't far across, their area blocked off, making it safer for them to be there. It was private property too, so anyone there could be sent to jail for trespassing.

--

Jade changed into the bikini that had been set out for her. She was so mad, she was furious, and invigorated, and if someone thought he was mad about being forced to stay in the room like a good little dog, then now-well, she had no idea what one might call her. She was so angry she was practically turning red in the face, like the animations, steam blowing from her ears and all, though the red just might be from embarrassment.

The bathing they had chosen, was single-handedly, the smalled one she owned, thin ties brought it up around her neck, and behind her back, and the bottoms were held together on either side with the same thin material, tied into bows on either of her hips. They stooped blow her pant line, just barely above covering everything, and the backs cut up the middle of her ass-cheeks, showing the underside of each, and their roundness. Since it was a bikini, it left her chest exposed, her stitched up wound and slightly dirty abs visible to anyone, and the slightly old scars on her legs and back from the day also visible, though both increased and decreased with the tan. Some had gone a white, and stood out against her darkened skin, while others stayed the color they were and were practically invisible.

Jade took in the scenery outside of the small shack that held a bathroom, shower that took water from the lake, and was therefore cold, and a small bench-like object. The path that led down the hill to the lake and patio was a dark green except for the path that had worn away, leaving only a trail of dirt and rocks.

The patio was made from a red-orange stone, and had three tables pushed together on it, six chairs surrounding the tables. There was a large grill by it, and some lounge patio chairs just off the patio, onto the grass, in what looked like more warn grass.

Saving the water for last, Jade slowly turned to look at the too-beautiful water, hating how nice it looked in the summer light. She took a step back from the water, moving toward the patio, and stumbled, backward, righting herself only enough to not be severly injured. Her wound hurt too much for her liking, but, as she picked her self up, she figured it's be better.

She looked at what she had tripped over. It was a small, black light, most of the way into the ground, the beam pointed toward the patio. She looked around, finding some lamps by the walk way, and more of the spot light lights that were littered around the yard, pointed to light up most of it, perfect for night time use.

Realizing it had been a while, she walked back over to the shack, pulling the bottoms down a tad, just to adjust the butt cheek coverings.

She knocked on the door. "Mom? How's it coming?"

There was a slight from inside before her response. "Good," she paused, "I'm gonna kill whoever picked this one-probably Ranger. That bastard," she added, though roe to herself. A second later the door opened, and she walked out, grumbling, head bent down as she adjusted different parts of the bathing suit.

It was a deep blue that was just a few shades shy of her eyes, and it, like Jade's, was a very skimpy bikini that covered probably less than hers. The back cut up a little closer to her crack, and the rim was a bit lower, the straps a bit smaller, and the top, well, it was so small it was barely a top any more.

The triangles were small, and covered just enough to be slightly appropriate, but the cleavage that spilled out, left little to the imagination, and made her boobs like enormous.

She looked up and held up her hand when she went to speak, then stopped as she took in the bathing suit they had picked for me. She turned a shade very close to purple.

The sound of crunching gravel made both the females look over to the top of the path where Ranger came down around the corner and hill with food in hand, and his swim trunks on. The long black bottoms were covering and probably two sizes bigger than he needed, but when he moved either of his legs to much, the material pressed to his skin, and let everyone see his well defined thighs.

As soon as he spotted the two of them, though it only took seconds, he slowed, the slight tip to his lips falling. The face a was a covered 'oh shit' look.

He continued over to the grill, and put everything on it, then headed over to them.

Steph crossed her arms, one leg sliding out slightly, the stance was defensive, and disbelieving, giving away her anger before he got three steps to them. HE faltered ever so slightly, but kept going toward her.

Jade did the opposite, her body language showing discomfort in how she was dressed, how she looked, and everything in between. Her arms crossed just below her breasts and she attempted to cover her stomach with them, then tensed her legs as she stood straight, though pulling back from the two of them to the shack, non to subtly sliding into it and closing the door. She grabbed the clothes she'd left on it, and slid them on, a t-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts made of black mesh with white stripes up the sides. She put the rest of her clothes in a bundle under her mothers clothes until they had somewhere to put it.

She went back out to find Ranger giving Steph a kiss, both sets of eyes closed, though Rangers opened and landed on her, causing him to pull back from Steph. Jade shifted her weight from foot to foot in discomfort, wishing she was invisible.

Steph was slightly confused as Ranger pulled away, but was pretty quick on the uptake, and figured out why, easily sliding her mouth from his as well, and turning toward her daughter. "He picked out mine, and is pretty sure Lester's the one who picked yours." She told Jade, enjoy the look hat flashed in her eyes, though not sure if she liked it or noty.

"You've got all right to beat the shit-crap, out of him," Ranger said, amending his 'swear' when Stephanie elbowed him hard in the ribs. He still held the elbow, and watched as the young girl thought through his statement, here eyes on the ground, her mouth forming into and 'ooooh' face, eyebrows lifting ever so slightly.

"Excuse me," she said curtly, sliding off to the walkway. She started up the hill, using thick parts of land, and big rocks to get up it. Once she got a little up, it was less steep, and she picked up her pace to a rib josteling-less fast walk/jog. She only got a little ways before she saw him and Junior already as ways from the house, the cooler between them, a bottle sitting on top, balancing on it's side as best as it could on the swinging object.

She tromped the rest of the way up, and stopped i nfront of them, the two men coming to a stop as well. Junior looked between the two of them, the confusion on Lesters face, and the anger on Jade's, and took the cooler, muttering a quick "I got this from here," and "good luck," to his friend, before lugging the cooler off.

Jade was silent until she was posative he was out of hearing range, then took a breath, finding that though it was supposed to be calming, that it really wasn't.

"Did you pick out the bathing suit for me?" She asked before she started in on him, just being sure that she was actually getting mad at the correct person.

He locked eyes with her, and studied her before answering, and when he did, it was weary and sounded as if he was insure about whether or not he should answer.

"Really?" Jade asked, clarifying herself, just to make sure.

"Yeeaahhh," he said again. "Why?"

She glared at him, and felt a brief flush of guilt when he took a step back, but it didn't matter, she felt satisfied about it at the same time, and that won out.

"Why might something that coers NOTHING be fine with me? Are you crazy?" She shouted at him.

At this, Lester's posture relaxed, and a cocky grin spread over hjis face, only making her angrier.

Her legs shifted as well, her right one stepping back, then jerking up toward Lester's crotch, hands at her sides in fists, left leg sustaining her body weight.

Lester's eyes widened and he blocked her knee quickly, protecting himself from her, then had to move when an elbow came at him, ducking below it, then finally caught her foot when it swung out from the side to hit him. He pulled it in next to him, pulling her closer, and wrapping his arm under her leg, so her foot was in his elbow, and his big hands were wrapped tightly around her fists.

"Stop," he said, his voice commanding.

Her eyes were angry, and moist, and her voice was low and filled with venom when she spoke. "You know I can't swim, why would you pick a bathing suit that I can't lay out in?"

Lester sighed and shifted, "are you going to stop trying to hit me?"

She nodded, eyes more than misty now.

He gently released her, but pulled her off the trail slightly, and sat her on a log, then squatted down in front of her to talk to her.

--

Meanwhile, Bobby got everything he needed, finally finding enough towels for them each, and grabbing a couple extra in case Jade and Steph need more for going in the water more.

With everything he needed, he headed out the door and down the path, the bundle of towels in his arms.

He got down the hill a ways before he heard quiet voices. Either they were whispering or they were a ways back. He recognized Lester's voice first, his voice soothing and calm. When he stopped talking there was a pause and he figured who he was talking to was thinking, and he faintly heard the other voice, slightly distressed, the slight gasps of breath taken signifying that she was crying, the she of course being Jade.

He decided not to stay any more, and continued on, figuring that they had gone off the path so as not to be heard, meaning that what they were saying was not something that one or either of them wanted to share. He was going to respect that privacy.

Plus, if they found him listening in, Jade would have even more of a reason to be mad at him and distrust him even more.

By the time he made it to the end of the path, he thought he faintly heard their footsteps behind him, a ways up, but continued on still, dropping the towels on the table at the patio when he finally arrived.

The sun was making the air hot, and slightly muggy, making his baggy grey t-shirt stick to his body. He fixed this by simply peeling off his shirt, and tossing it with one of the extra large towels over on the side of the patio.

He looked around for the sunscreen, though it really only helped prevent the pain of a burn, and not getting skin cancer, but when he burnt, since he was black, didn't turn bright red—and make him look like he spent a couple hours too long in the sun.

Spotting it over by the cooler, he walked over and grabbed the bottle, and squeezed some onto his hand, and then rubbed his hands together and began methodically spreading across the angles of his body, face, shoulders, arms, legs, and some of his back and chest.

When his hands were almost free of the smooth and lightly scented lotion, he glanced around the area, taking in where everyone was.

Ranger was at the grill, getting the food going, Junior was by the sunscreen, having also ditched his shirt and was putting some on, Lester and Jade were standing and talking together at the table, laughing together, while Steph was walking toward them, a smile on her face. He could kind of make out what she said as she walked up to them, partially by hear, and partially by how her lips moved. "What are two of my favorite people up to?" She asked.

She planted herself in the seat next to Jade, noticing the shift back in his seat that Lester took, the subtle change in his posture, though his smile never faltered.

He half-mindedly watched them talk for a while, before physically shaking loose his thoughts and walking to them, slapping the back of his hand on Lester's shirt covered shoulder.

"You want to go in? Bet we could get these two in," he said to Lester, not noticing luckily or unluckily, how Jade stiffened at the mention of her being in the water.

Steph only laughed, and he saw that, both the men did.

"You think so, Brown?" She teased.

He smirked at her, "no, not think," he said, moving over to her, "know." He picked her up out of the chair, her skin warm against him, and ran toward the water, running down the dock to the very edge and tossing her, then diving off to the side and popping up in the water a couple feet from her.

Steph's arms moved in the water a bit as she worked to stay on top of the nice water, keeping it around shoulder height and not too much above that.

She glared at him playfully, then used one hand to splash water at him, quickly turning and using her hands to paddle toward the dock. She got there before him, only because he was farther out, had to get water from his eyes, and well, those are it, but his long, powerful stroked had him right behind her as she grabbed the edge of the dock and lugged herself up, managing only to get up onto the dock before she felt the other prescence.

She looked from the large, mocha-color feet littered with some dark hair sprinkled across the top, and gulped. She followed the feet to the legs, powerful thighs, solid naked chest, and up the chorded neck to Ranger's mischievously grinning face.

She gave him a nervous smile. "Ranger," she noted.

His smile grew, a nd she made a dash for it at the same time as he wrapped his arms around her and jumped off the dock, splashing into the water with her still in his arms.

His still-powerful legs kicked them up to them both to the surface without needing any arms. Once he broke though the surface, hauling Steph up first, he quickly made sure she was still alive, breathing, and okay, before dropping below the surface and using his arms and legs to swim frog style a foot and a half below the surface, until he was a good distance away, then came up, his cut-short hair that was long enough to brush his face sticking to his forehead and soaked to his scalp.--

He looked over to where Stephanie was treading water, little splashes seen every now and then as her hand accidentally came above water.

Ranger treaded silently above the water, letting himself sink until the water was just below his nose, and he could see her, but doubted she could see him very well. He watched her spin in circles for a minute, then after looking in his direction a couple of times, she started slowly moving toward him. He pulled in some air through his nose, and kept his eyes open as he stopped moving, letting his body weight pull him below the surface to a safe depth.

Positive that she couldn't see him through the water at such a close proximity, he did his frog impersonation, and moved toward her, his movements slower as he got closer to her, so as not to let her feel the water rushing by her legs.

He was almost completely still under water behind her legs. He moved quick when he was ready, grabbing her legs to steady them, and putting his head between them so she was sitting on his shoulders, then used both arms and his legs to push up above the water. He took a quick gasp of air at the peak of his ascent, and ass he started going back down into the water, closed his mouth and held in the air.

As soon as he could, on the way back down, the bottoms of his pecks not quite touching the water, he used his arms to propel himself backwards, dumping her backwards into the water.

She popped up a second after going under, her body going in almost upside down, meaning she had to twist to orient herself.

She fumbled when she came up, taking in some air and using her arms to move for Ranger quickly. He didn't look scared at all, --in fact he had a cocky smile across his face.

He didn't bother moving as she came toward him, and did the best jump she could in the water, launching herself onto Ranger, and wrapping her arms around his neck.

She was going to try and fight him, to try and push him beneath the surface, but she scratched that plan when she remembered the not to long ago show of how well skilled he was in the water, his abilities getting up close to the ones he had on land.

Instead, she looped her arms and legs around him, and pushed her lips to his as she ground her pelvis against his, instantly feeling the hard on she gave him. She moaned into his mouth, pressing closer to him as she struggled slightly against smiling, though it wasn't at the top of the list of things running through her mind.

Back on land, Jade had watched it unfold, and she was kinda edgy about some of it, like watching Bobby throw Steph in, then watching Ranger jump in with her in his arms, and had fun watching him tip her off, but scrunched up her nose with the teenage 'ew' look on her face when her mother plastered herself against Ranger, her mouth completely one with him as they played tonsil hockey, it was like watching sex in water.

"Oh God," she groaned, watching them make out. She turned to Lester, only to find him watching her intently. --"What?" She asked him.

"Just thinking," he paused, leaning over the table more, locking eyes with her. "Would you like to go in the water after we eat, or in a bit? I wouldn't let go of you," he added at her unsure look.

She scrunched her nose up more, glancing at the table, thinking. Did she want to go in the water? Was she scared of it because she almost drowned, or because she couldn't swim?

She swallowed hard, rolling her shoulders then managing to nod slightly and look up at him.

"I'm not going to force you to, Jade. It's up to you, just an offer," he told her, his intense eyes locked on her blue ones.

"I know, but I might as well try not to be so scared of it sooner or later," she told him, trying to shrug it off, much like Lester had noticed her mother did a lot.

"Foods done!" Junior called out, causing five pairs of eyes two swing to him, and where he stood, putting burgers onto a plate, and piling hot dogs onto the side. He went to the table where Lester and Jade were, and set the plate down in the middle of the middle table out of the three, then went back and grabbed some condiments, like ketchup and mustard, and then the buns for hot dogs and hamburgers, and brought them to the table along with a stack of paper plates.

By the time everything was at the table, Ranger and Steph and Bobby had pulled themselves from the water, and were on their way to the table, Steph wrapped in a towel, Ranger and Bobby simply letting a towel rest around their shoulders.

They all took seats, and we passed everything around the tables, though the Hamburgers and hot dogs were simply pulled from the plate. There was a mound of each, and everyone knew there was more if they needed them, which at the rate the food was leaving the plate, they probably would.

Lester, Ranger, Bobby and Junior each had three items, two h's and a d, or three of one thing, or the other, pretty much three items of any combination, and they started eating like it was normal.

It was relatively silent while everyone was eating, and once they boys finished their first helping, most of them went for more, grabbing another hamburger or hot dog to fill them.

Steph and Jade didn't need nearly as much, and therefore ate half as much as one of them, and felt like they were going to gain more weight than any of them would, but that was just Steph, Jade didn't care what she ate. She had the metabolism of a Morelli, and needed pretty constant streams of food to keep her filled.

When everyone was done, they all took parts and helped clean up, covering up the left over food, but leaving them in the open for them to munch on. Plates were tossed into the trash bag that had been brought down, and the 'need to be cold' condiments went back into the cooler.

She turned from tossing a plate in the trash, and screamed, started, when she was lifted off the ground and practically thrown over someone shoulder. Looking at the skin, she deducted that it was Bobby. She paniced. She couldn't help it.

Bobby had her like he'd grabbed Steph, and was going to do the same exact thing to her that he did to Steph. Throw her in the water.

Lester had been searching through the drinks put in the cooler for something good when Jade screamed, and of course, he looked over. Momentarily surprised to not see her there, his reactions were delayed in running after Bobby, who'd scooped up Jade and was running full speed for the end of the dock.

He ran after him, shirt and flip-flops coming off as he went, being only in his swimming trunks when he hit the end of the dock shortly after she was tossed in, a horrified look on her face. He took only a second to see where she would be, sinking obviously, in the water.

He dove in, arms stretched above his head and hands placed together in perfect formation. He was a SEAL, meaning not only was he extra good at being In the water from all of his underwater training, but a SEAL was one of the best military groups, one of the toughest. They mastered SEa,Air and Land combat.

In the water, he finally opened his eyes and glanced around the mucky water.

Jade was sinking fast, her clothes weighing her down. He moved to her and grabbed her by the waist, tugging her close to limp for up to the air. He was already shedding her extra clothes, tossing them onto the dock and keeping hold of her with the other hand. He kept her head above the water, though she wasn't responding like she was conscious yet. He swam to the dock, and shouted for some help. Ranger and Junior were already there, they had come at the commotion. Ranger grabbed her under her arms and into the water to grab under her legs so he could easily pull her from the water. Once out of the water, he set her on the dock and was about to start checking for a pulse, breath and consciousness, when Lester started, his actions quick.

Lester loved Jade like a little sister, and but he worried about her like a father, and found her attractive like more than appropriate than either of those. He ignored those feelings, and pushed all emotions from him as he checked her neck for a pulse. He found a strong and steady one.

He leaned down with his ear to her mouth, and his eyes watching for her chest to rise. It didn't move, and no breath came out until he heard the distinct sound of her choking. He quickly rolled her to her side, and told her that coughing helped.

She did as he said, and coughed and spit up water, her body rolling more onto her hands and knees as she sputtered for air, gasping between coughing fits.

Bobby was there, trying to figure out why she hadn't swam up. He didn't understand, and he was desperately trying to pull the pieces together.

"She can'ty swim, moron," Lester shot at his friend. Rage filled him, and consumed him and he wanted to fucking hit the idiot.

Lester rubbed her back, pulling her to him once she was left only breathing heavy, trying compensate for the loss of oxygen. He cradled her in his arms, pulling her up close to his chest as she started to shiver, her body jerking in his arms.

He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her like someone would to a baby, still keeping her in his arms, on hand under her knees the other behind her back. She had curled up tightly, tilting her body into his chest.

Lester walked to a chair ,and sat down, taking advantage of being able to pull her closer to get he warmer.

She curled in on herself more, the tensed and moaned, the sound guttural and in pain.

Steph watched from nearby, heard the moan of pain, and remembered her stitches, and was going to remind Lester, when he started slowly pulling her legs out from her, turning her into a position that looked as if it'd be more comfortable with the stitches where they were.

Uncurled was better for the pain, but it left more of her open to the now cold feeling air, though it was hot and muggy, it was cold once wet, and she shivered harder, her body not liking it more because it wasn't something that it had to deal with much, other than showers, in which she got dressed in the still hot room.

Everyone resumed, or kinda resumed, what they had been doing, all still having one eye on the two of them.

Then there was Bobby, who was pacing around the chair, frantically, the calm, cool, loose good-boy look her constantly had, blown as he looked at them worriedly, going between asking if he was sure she was going to be okay, and apologizing profusely about throwing her into the water, saying that he had no idea that she couldn't swim.

Lester was getting tired of him him fumbling around the chair, and finally shoved who he now was going to think of as a 'bumbling idiot', away.

Bobby was either smart or cautious because he stayed away from them after that, and had always been staying away from Steph, afraid that she would go all vigilante on him and he might not make it. She didn't want to end up like her skips-but he wouldn't tell her that.

Bobby moved off and sat down at the edge of the dock, elbows on his knees, thinking back to since he'd met Jade, and was trying to find a point where she'd given even a slight hint of not being able to swim.

Ranger, over by the grill again, finally stopped Steph in her path of pacing, snagging an arm around her waist and pulling her to him, and lowing himself to he ground, pulling her with him, and setting her on his lap. Ranger moved his back against something sturdy, and stretched out his legs, shifting Steph onto them comfortably, and wrapped his arms around her.

Ranger used on of his hands to pull her head down to his chest, resting it on his hard muscles.

She whimpered once she go there, and grabbed into the shirt he'd put on. "I'm such a terrible mother," she cried, "I don't know anything bout my own daughter, hell, I don't even live on the same side of the continent as her."

Ranger made soothing noises, and as he was, spotted a small pile of dark green cloth. Lester's shirt. He looked over at Junior, who he knew was paying attention, and told him to bring Lesterhi shirt, and pointed over where it was, then looked back down at Steph and cuddling her in.

"Babe, you are an amazing mother. I know I'm not the exemplary show for a Dad, but I kno what it's like to find something out about your own kid, and have the moment of total shock, and your left there thinking, what did I miss?

"Then as a teen, they make it worse by closing off, and not telling you anything. They think they're protecting you, for all we know, Jade might actually be protecting you, right now thats what it looks like. Like she's hiding something that hurt her a lot, but that if you knew, would encroach on what you have in Trenton, and maybe your safety," Ranger paused, kissing the top of his head. "Not your fault, Stephanie, she was the only one-and Lester of course- that could have told you, but it wasn't his place until it was a danger, like then."

Lester sat almost completely still, resisting the urge to bounce his leg up and down with slight impatience and worry.

He looked up when he heard someone coming over to them, and saw Junior walk over with his t-shirt, and toss it to him. He caught it, looked at it, and instead of putting it on himself, started moving Jade around to pick her up a bit, just enough to slide it on over her head, and put her arms threw it.

It was a bit big on her, but Lester was built slim, and solid, so the shirt was big on her, but not as big as -say, Tank's shirt, of which would probably swallow her up in one bite. He chuckled at the image that gave him.

"Wha's so funny?" Jade asked from his lap, her eyes peering up at his face.

He flashed her a smile. "Just the thought of you in Tank's shirt," he told her, trying to ignore how it sounded, slightly dirty considering there he was, a fully legal and grown up adult, telling this teen that he was thinking about her in other men's clothes.

Jade seemed to get the dirty part as well as the intended thought, and smirked, looking up and raising an eye brow at him. "You picture me in other guy's clothes? Is that all you picture me in? While you're at it, you toss in a bit of skipping clothes and just thinking of me naked?"

"No," Lester defended. "You know that's not what I meant."

Jade laughed. "Yep, but it's fun to tease anyways."

Lester sobered and carefully started pullingher more upright. "So, how are you? Okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine, was a bit cold there for a minute after, a bit scared, you know, but whatever, I'm good," she told him.

Lester didn't smile or take the bait she had set out in neon colors. "Jade, I'm serious, I saw the look on your face as you went in and you were more than a 'bit scared'. That was true fear and terror in your eyes. You've almost drowned before. Really close right? Now every time you go in water at a friends pool party, in a pool of water where you can touch, you're afraid, normally don't stay in very much, and when you are finally out of it, you get as far away as possible with out attracting attention. When you are in it though, you can't stop worrying, can't stop thinking that _something _is going to happen, and you're going to end up back under that water, watching and feeling yourself dying," Lester said, his voice low, the statement loaded with evidence of bad experiences.

"You've gotten close to drowning?" She asked him, her voice curious and not-sure. He was a brilliant swimmer, how could he have drowned?

Lester nodded. "I wasn't drugged though, my father was trying to teach me a lesson, so he pushed me under water in this lake thing. It had rocks at the bottom, and when he let go so I could come up, I couldn't because he'd pushed me so far under that I'd gotten caught. My clothes were wet and weighing me down, and they were loose from me so they were caught on little water plants, and my foot, in the process of getting out of the plants, had gotten wedged under the rocks.

"I was under water so long that I passed out from loss of oxygen. I didn't last long though, because I lost all my air when I was struggling. He ended up getting in and pulling me out apparently, because when I came to, he was wet, and I was wet, and everything hurt, and I was so confused because I was on land. I didn't go near any body of water in which was not a man-made pool that I could stand flat foot in and have the water no higher than my shoulders, for years.

"That is until a little before my 18th birthday, when I decided after doing some research and talking to my friend, he was more of a mentor, like the Big Brother program, well, he was a SEAL, and I got him over, and told him all about it. He had suspected _something_ had happened seen as I wouldn't go to the beach with him anymore, but anyway, I got him to come over, and it only took two or three days for me to get over my fear, and be able to do the doggy paddle. From there I learned how to swim, and for weeks, I practiced vigorously, my mind set on being a SEAL, and making it through their program, and you know, I did. I couldn't have gotten over my fears without my mentor, Travis, without him, I couldn't have done it," Lester admitted, his eyes finding Jade's.

Jade bit her lip, letting her mind process everything. "I don't want to be afraid anymore, Lester," she paused, "will you, will you help me?" She asked, finally looking up and meeting his eyes.

"Absolutely." He told her, then paused and looked back down at her with a crooked smile, "I bet that if you ask anyone here, that they could all tell you about a time in the water where they almost drowned, maybe even someone else who went through a time being scared of water," he shrugged and stood, pulling her up with him, then lowering her to her feet.

Down on the ground, she looked up at him and squinted into the light, "how can you just pick me up like I'm a ten pound dumb bell?" She asked him.

"Gorgeous, you are like a ten-pound dumbbell to me. :D Everyone one else at RangeMan too," he paused, "'cept your mom," he grinned, "don't think she could pick you up that easily."

Jade smiled and laughed, "when do we start?"

"Right now," Lester said, tapping her in the small of her back, sending her forward a few steps, "go onto the dock and wait there for me, and leave my shirt on the table," he told her, laughing at the look she sent him. "Do not go near the edge, Jade," he warned her, glancing back at her and going over to Ranger and Steph, and squatting down an appropriate distance away.

"I'm going to help her start getting over her fear, and teaching her to swim, I think I am the best qualified," Lester said, "plus she trusts me, and that is vital to this," he told Ranger.

Ranger nodded. "I agree."

Lester nodded and flashed a smile at Steph, slipping up and pressing a kiss to her forehead then winking at her before getting up.

--

Jade sighed when hearing that she needed to take Lester's slightly large shirt off to go into the water. She gingerly peeled it off, careful of her wound and not attempting to stretch for fear of re popping any stitches that held her side together.

She set his shirt over the edge of one the chairs, instantly missing it's coverage and warmth, though the heat of the suns rays kept her nice and warm.

That thought in mind, she looked around for the sunscreen, knowing there was one but not being quite sure where said bottle was. Seeing a familiar bottle, she walked toward it. The label said it was infact sunscreen, so she quickly squirted some into the palm of her hand, then set the bottle down, rubbing her hands together, than it into her face, shoulders and chest, along with anywhere else that she could put he spare lotion. Wit ha little left, she was determined to get some on her calves, a place where she'd burnt many times ,and so spend the walk to the dock hopping on one foot while putting sunscreen on the opposite calf, then switching legs and hobbling the other way to do the other leg.

Once at the dock, she walked near the edge, but stepped back when Lester's warning rang clear in her mind.

She backed from the edge slightly, not too far back though, because she feared that she mght fall of _that_ side instead.

She shifted her weight between her feet, unsure of what to do. She glanced back to see Lester down in front of Ranger and Steph, talking to them.

She looked out at the shimmering blue water, feeling how compelling it was, like a drug, trying to lure her out to it. She took another step closer to the first edge, but faltered with the step after that.

She lowered herself carefully to the dock, and gripped the striped gaps in the planks of wood, ready and expecting it to move under her. Seen as this was her first time on a dock not being carried, her time spent coughing and spitting up water also not counting because he doubted that she'd be able to remember if it _had_ moved, and since most of it she was practically unconscious.

She moved so she was sitting on her butt, legs out in front of her, and carefully and slowly scooted to the edge, first only going close enough to dip her feet in, but then all the way so that the back of her knees was even with the edge of the dock, her mid calves to feet immersed in the chilling water.

Her fingers gripped the dock wit ha white knuckled grip as she gently moved her feet in the water.

--

Lester turned from Ranger and Steph to see Jade on the dock, lowering herself down to it, and grabbing at the dock with both hands unsteadily. Then he watched slightly humorously, as she moved herself to her ass, and scooted for the edge. He continued on his way don, and got there just after she had gotten the back of her knees to rest on the corner of the dock.

Silently, he sat down next to her and dropped his feet into the water with hers. He was silent, giving her a moment of silence and peace, letting her take all the time she needed to get used to the water and being so near it, let alone in it.

The water was deep, so deep that it got muggy a ways down, making it too dark and hard to see the bottom.

She leaned forward ever so slightly to try and see more of the water, or at least farther down, and when she couldn't, she gripped the edge tighter and leaned over farther.

Her legs slipped from the dock, and with a quiet yelp, and a jerk, she fell to the water, getting soaked up to her belly before Lester's hands caught her under the arm pit, and pulled her up. With her up far enough, he reached lower and grabbed her below her wound, on the hip bone, and pulled her the rest of the way up, moving her hands before for the purpose of not tearing all of her stitches when he pulled her out.

He got her over the edge of the deck and over so that she was in front of him, sitting between his open legs, her feet still in the water. He wrapped his arms around her body and held her in place.

Her breath had picked up again, along with her heart, the pace faster than normal. Her fingers had ditched hanging onto the dock that did nothing to help keep her up, a layer of the wood scraping off under her nails from trying to stay up, and now the fingers were grasping his arms tightly. "Don't let me fall," she whispered through gasping breaths of air.

"Shhhh," Lester cooed. "I'm not going to let you fall, or get hurt. I promise," he told her, pausing momentarily, "I wont let you go in the water until you're ready," he added.

"Good," she said, nodding.

"Are you ready to go in?" He asked her, his tight grip around her waist not faltering.

She didn't move for several beats, and then she took a deep breath and nodded.

Lester shifted just a little, moving Jade with him, and sighed when her whole body tensed, and compacted down just a little bit smaller than before.

"Jade," he whispered in her ear, "you need to relax a little, I promised you I wouldn't let you get hurt, and that I wont let go of you,"he paused. "I'm going to move closer to the edge, and put us in a bit slower than jumping, okay?" He told her clearly.

"Mmhmm," she mumbled in agreement, grasping his arms still, and starting to move herself. "Wait a sec," she said, continuing to shift her position. She worked at it until she was facing him. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and burried her face in his shoulder, arms wrapping around his neck tightly. "Okay, go for it," she said into his shoulder.

She smiled, and scooted forward a bit, then, since he no longer needed his hands to keep her to him, tuned them around, held onto the down with both hands in front of him-behind her-, and lowered them into the water, trying not to enjoy how _cold_ the water was.

Jade shrank against him, body tense again, nails biting into his skin.

"Look, here, feel my hands?" He asked, using one hand and both legs to keep them afloat, letting the other rub against her back, squeezing lightly at the tightly corded and hidden neck, He ran his fingers up into her pulled up hair and then withdrew them, and used them to help them tread water.

"Can you open your eyes for me?" Lester asked, attempting to look over his shoulder as best as possible to be able to see her face.

He saw her eyes lashes peek open, and knew her eyes were open when her breathing escalated ,and he could faintly hear her muttering "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, what was I thinking-" she cut off with a yelp when he spun in the water so she could see the dock.

Lester felt one of her hands leave my back and grab for the dock. He moved back a little, and knew when she grabbed it, because her body was a little less freaked, but she was a bit more frantic as she tried to pull herself up onto the dock, meaning she'd have to go forward over my face.

He tugged her back down, and felt the panic with in her.

--

The End of Chapter 17

HAHA! It is 24 pages!! :) **laughs evily** muhahahaha. I told you I'd keep posting, but I'm still not sure about any sort of regular thing, I mean, I'm writing a LOT of stories at a time to keep up with SummerWrite, so if I get writers block on ONE thing, then I can start on something else, I have abunch of the next chapter written, butstopped it here so I could post it. :D Loves guys,

**p.s. Gonna stay in 3rd person probably**

Epic Sock Owner- 40,514/150,000 Words


	18. Swimming Lessons and Dinner

Jade changed her mind, she didn't want to do this anymore, she wanted to get out of the water, right then.

"Jade, please stop," he practically begged when her knee brushed his crotch as she struggled to leave. Then, her foot jabbed into him as she frantically tried to climb over him and out.

When talking calmly to her wasn't working, he used one hand to grab her ankle and tug her down, then quickly grabbed her shoulder to hold her up and stop her movements. "Para," he said to her, his voice slightly raised, but not shouting, due to their close proximity.

"I''m sorry," she whispered, then mumbled off in Spanish, Lester only able to catch a few things about how she never liked swimming, and that it would take up too much time for him, but her voice was so low that Lester was only able to put together that much of it, the rest falling on deaf ears.

"Hey," he whispered in her ear, pushing her up onto the dock and climbing on as well, keeping a good grip of her so that she didn't run off.

"Look," he told her as he once against sat her between his legs, this time pulling her back completely to his front, and keeping her in place with the two steel bands that were Lester's arms wrapped around her midsection, not only keeping her in place, but also helping her stay a bit warmer while they were out of the water.

"You can do this, Jade. You can do this. Don't let the fear run your life," he told her, trying to get her to loosen up a bit, and hoping that she might reconsider _not_ trying to get over her fear and learn to swim, and actually trying to do so. Though it was all a bit confusing, it worked and she sighed, the sign of her breaking, and giving in.

"I don't know if I can," she whined.

"I do," Lester said.

"Well thats good, at least one of us has confidence in me," she snorted out sarcastically, then paused as she actually thought."What do I have to do, Lester, I can't just let you hold me in the water, I-" she paused again, showing how hard this was for her.

But he didn't need to see, he'd been there.

"I need to know what _I_ have to do to learn," she insisted, turning slightly to look at Lester.

"You need to relax for one, you need to trust me, and you need to believe this can work," he paused to take a breath as he continued on, "you need to have determination, and you need to _want_ this. I know that you do too, I know that you really want to not be scared anymore, Jade. You want to, so let yourself admit that. Get out of denial. Don't follow your mom with that. Denial gets you no where in life."

"I know," Jade whispered. "I'm ready, I want to do this."

"You sure you want this?" He asked purely for the purpose of making her say it again.

"Yes," she replied.

"Really?" He asked," because I'm not hearing any emotion in your voice, I'm not thinking that you really want to, I think you're just tootin' my horn and want to make me feel loved and like you value my help and knowledge," he edged.

"Yes," she repeated again, the emotion in her voice that time, her determination showing.

She used her hands and body to propel forward, taking a quick breath before, and clinging to Lester when he was forced to go in with her or have her sink.

She pushed herself closer to him again, feeling the vast expanse of the water really was, how much of it there was, and how much _more_ than in her shower.

"Ready for me to give you more room?" He asked, slowly moving her from his body.

"Just don't let me go," she reminded him. It made him flash her a sad smile. "I'd never let you go unless I thought you were completely and totally ready," he told her sincerely.

"Okay," Jade said to herself, then had a mental pep talk. "Let's do this," she said, then, when he pushed her away from his body, one hand able to hold her lightened weight in the water, she used both hands to grasp at his wrist and arm, forcing him to change his grim from balancing her simply with his hand splayed across her stomach, and her getting used to laying in the water, to having from elbow to fingers wrapped around her waist again.

"Slowly," she reminded him as he started to push her out again, his legs still treading the water to keep him up.

"It's okay," he soothed to her when she started looking a bit worried, and slowly moved his arm in the water, dipping her very slightly, and letting her feel the water move over her, not just be clamped around her like vice grips trying to choke her.

"Okay," Lester repeated her earlier words, searching for Jade's eyes. "You ready to learn how to swim? This is going to be the easy part, seen as you probably learned this when you were little, and your body forgot through out not doing the actions, and you not being in a situation for a while when you couldn't use it or weren't in any that you would need it.

"It's just like when people have to do physical therapy to teach our legs to walk again, or to teach our arms to shoot, or our bodies to run and breath. It happens. You can do this," he paused again, "you ready?"

She nodded, and he gave her a basic over view first, explaining how the hands acted like buckets to push the water in a way, and it was like your hands were small paddles, meant to move only your body and not a canoe of people. Said mostly the same for your feet, but they're more brute, they aren't for the care of doing a small, precise thing, they are pure the power of movement, a bit of an extra push, but since legs are normally the strongest part of the body, since they hold the largest muscle, the legs are best to simply- he had waved to himself bobbing in the water- keep you up, or at least close to up.

First, he showed her her how to move her hands in the doggy paddle, and had her try it a little, see how it felt.

She instantly felt a little better as she tried that, and found that she was staying up easier. Lester was also happy, because it took a considerable about of pressure off his aching wrist.

Next, he explained to just move your legs opposite each other, like the motions of swings on a swing set, but to make sure that the swings were not in each others 'bathroom' as they called it in elementary school, otherwise she'd end up swimming like a mermaid, and bringing her whole body with her.

It took her a second to get the motion right, then a few more after that to make it start doing something, but when she did, and they both knew it when she did, they were pleased. Lester kept his hands below her stomach, skimming the smooth soft skin to keep her comforted that he hadn't let her go yet, as they moved in a circle, then to the dock.

"Great job," he paused, "not quite done, still have some work to do, but now you have the basics, and you can swim," he smiled at her, and saw the small smile of accomplishment that she had as they sat on the wood dock. "Lets go dry off and rest about before continuing. We can even wait until tomorrow if you'd like."

She seemed to think about it, pondering if she really _wanted_ to wait before getting back in the water. "I think I will wait until tomorrow, unless I change my mind after a rest. I'm tired, so you must be exhausted, you were holding me up too," she noted, nudging him with her shoulder, fighting the grimace that pulled at her face as her ribs protested at the movement.

"Careful," he told her, keeping her still, obviously catching the grimace of pain that she made. "I think they're thinking of packing up out here sometime around five,the sun will start setting and bugs will start to be a problem," his gaze flickered to the group of them up at the patio, laughing and talking. "I think they all want to go in together at some point, we're gonna play around," he paused, his mid trying to remember something, Jade simply staring at Lester as she waited for him to say what he had to say.

"I actually think I remember them leaving a set of swimming toys here for the kids..." he mumbled, then, talking more to her than himself, told her almost the same thing, just that there was some toys in the shed that she might like to use when everyone hopped into the water in a bit.

She shrugged. "Like what?" She asked.

He smiled and stood, then helped her up, and walked her to the shed that was on the back of the bathroom thing. He had the combination to the lock and opened it, peeking inside to see what he could find that might be helpful.

Ranger sat still on the ground with Steph on his lap, thinking.

He was almost dry, and Steph was, seen as her bathing suit was just that much smaller than his thick trunks, and he knew Bobby was ready to go in, though he didn't say anything to anyone for fear of getting yelled at, shamed, set to night duty, or getting a knee in the crotch from yours truly, Steph.

Steph too, wanted to go and have like, a massive game of Marco-Polo in the water, but now that she knew Jade couldn't swim...god, it made her feel like a really bad mom, and guilty about wanting to go in when her daughter couldn't without someone helping her, if then even.

"Hey Ranger?"

"Yeah?" He responded.

"Did we by any chance bring any floaties, or water chairs, or...anything?" Blind hope was cluttering her voice as she drew at straws.

"No," he said, the kissed the top of her head. "I can do one better," he told her,standing them up."This is not normally a safe house, but it is the safest house. It's me and my families summer house. Thats why there is so many rooms, but we don't come every summer, so the only things we keep here are the emergency food, water toys that we don't want to have to bring back and forth, laundry stuff, some towels and a set of emergency clothes shoved into a duffel bag in the basement."

"Water toys?" She repeated.

"Yep, the shed on the back of the bathroom shack is locked with toys," he looked over there, though it was only a few steps away now.

He laughed, walking over to where he could see Jade lingering in the doorway, listening to what Lester was saying to himself.

"Looks like I'm behind you again, Lester," Ranger said casually as he leaned on the outside of the door frame.

Jade, upon seeing him, had stood just a little straighter, was a little stiffer, and a just a bit less comfortable. This of course did not escape Ranger's notice, but Steph didn't see much for a reaction to it other than him noticing it, and maybe a little understanding.

Lester turned at Ranger's comment, his expression startled.

Steph found it really humerus, Lester surprised. Of all the times Lester had helped her and had talked with her, he had been in control, even of a simple conversation, easily showing his dominance in a subtle way, like being able to make her change the topic, changing the topic himself, or making her laugh or feel emotions.

The same was with all of Ranger's men. They tended to know what you were thinking before you thought it and even what you were going to say before you did.

Steph resisted the urge to laugh, and simply smiled at the look instead.

"I think there are some large floats behind that basketball hoop. Pump is hanging on the wall," he said, nodding his head to the basketball hoop, then to the wall where the pump hung, dangling limply against the sturdy walls.

Lester went behind the hoop, and sure enough he came out holding a stack of multi colored plastic. There was five of them, in a variety of colors, and though not all of them were a single color, the only colors seen were pink, purple, yellow, green and blue.

"How about these, Jade?" Lester asked, eyes glittering with amusement as he held up the little floats that you filled with air and shoved up little kids arms to their biceps that kept them above water.

She glared back at him, trying not to look at the little Barbie's and spider men littering the thin white plastic's background.

She mumbled a curse in Spanish, one not as friendly as _stupid Spanish-speaking monkey', _and more along the lines of 'ass whole'.

Lester flashed her a big grin. "Just kidding."

Ranger shook his head, "feel free to use anything in here," he told them,then paused. "Pass me the basketball hoop," he said, then looked around the room. "I'm almost positive that the ball is under it."

Lester picked up the large, already inflated item, and handed it over to Ranger, than dug though the stuff below it. After a second, he stood back up and tossed Ranger a basketball colored, un-inflated flop of plastic.

Lester grabbed the plain blue and plain green translucent floats, and the pump, and followed Ranger out. He stopped just outside the door, and kicked it shut with his foot, then had Jade close the lock and twist the numbers around on it.

Jade and Steph walked behind the boys, attempting- though not doing a very good job of it- at not laughing at the absurdity of them walking with colorful inflated or not, water toys.

Jade and Steph also saw Lester and Ranger glance back at them, then at each other. Lester went to the table with the pump and toys that needed to be inflated, and started to blow them up, while Ranger went down to the dock with the basketball hoop and tossed it off the right side of the dock. He turned and threw the ball to Lester, and turned his playful gaze on the girls.

First, he grabbed Steph, and took two large, fast steps to the edge of the dock and jumped in with her, making sure she didn't have any trouble getting back up again after.

She heard chairs move, and almost literally, could feel the ground shaking. Curious, she looked back to see Bobby and Junior barreling toward the dock, most likely racing at the way they were watching each other, arms pumping in time with their opposite leg, strides long, clothes already stripped to their swim trunks.

She gasped lightly, eyes widening,and stepped back to, yelping when she felt the edge of the dock at the arc of her foot. Right before she felt the weight shift and she knew she was going over backward, she took a big breath, and closed her eyes, then, as she felt, curled her body protectively around its self.

She hit the water wit ha hard splash and quickly unrolled so she could start trying to swim up, moving her hands and legs the way Lester had taught her too. Since she had a fast start and didn't get far under before she started _swimming_, she was easily coming above the water, and taking another series of breaths as she felt herself bob around the top of the water, her wrist and legs quickly tiring from the exertion of movements her body wasn't used to.

She only had to stay up another short couple of seconds before an arm snagged around her waist slowly, being careful of her ribs, and to not touch her in any way that would make her uncomfortable. The hands were tedious, and they were nervous, but strong, and they kept her up, so she was good. She turned to look at Ranger and clutched his shoulder, her breathing ragged.

Her legs continued to kick frantically in the water to help her stay afloat more.

"It's okay," Ranger murmured his voice surprisingly soothing. "Here," he added as he hiked her up an inch to keep a better grip of her. "Slower kicks work better, and you'll have more energy."

She did what he said, slowing her kicks down, but making each one more beneficial by making them a bit longer as well.

"You okay?" He asked after a second.

"Yeah,"she said between breaths, then nodded at the dock, her eyes flickering to it sheepishly. "Can you...?"

He nodded, using his free hand to move the three or four feet to the dock. He placed the same free hand on the dock to steady them, then the hand that was holding Jade lifted, muscles flexing and straining under the weight, and pushed her up to the edge.

When she was up securely, he dropped into the water wit ha normal sized breath, and swam under then dock to the other side, came up and popped out of the water. He pulled himself out of the water quickly, and moved over to where Jade had stood.

Jade was panting lightly, both from being burnt out, and from the pain of having the stitches tug at her skin making the breath faster and heavier than normal.

She turned slightly from him, her face and chest flushing with red hot embarrassment, her face tilted away, body angled slightly to him, just enough to keep her back from being to him, though her was facing her side and the back of her head.

"Hey," Ranger said softly, resisting the urge to squat down in front of her, though she was only half a foot shorter.

"Hey," he repeated, catching her chin wit ha finger. He turned her so she was facing him, and looked down, locking eyes with her. "Lester told you about how long it was before he knew how to swim, and wasn't afraid of the water, right?" Ranger asked, being sure to _not_ talk to her like he might one of his small nieces. He needed to treat her like a young adult and be reasonable, speak logic to her.

"Yeah," she told him, he voice a little snappy as she tried to pull her face free from him. Ranger resisted the now more present urge to jerk it back and yell at her tot make her understand.

Instead he tilted her chin up a bit higher and kept eyes contact. "He was almost eighteen. And then a year later, as soon as he could he went into the Navy and did the SEAL program, and completed it. That course has vigorous shit. Excuse my language if you suddenly take offense," he said, giving her a pointed look. "I wont tell your mom about that, but you gotta watch you language in Spanish _and_ English. "Anyway, I've been friends with him since a long time ago, and I'm not going to tell you _why_ he was afraid if he didn't already tell you," he raised an eyebrow and I nodded slightly.

He released my chin and bent over slightly so he was her height, keeping yes contact. "Well, I remember how scared he was of it, and how I always got him to go into pools with bottoms, like regular pools, but he was so uncomfortable.

"He missed a lot of things being afraid -for a good reason- but he didn't do a lot of things that he could have done. If it weren't for Travis, I don't think that he would have ever cared to learn, and I have no idea where he'd be now, not into the Navy, and definitely not a SEAL," Ranger stopped and caught her eyes again. "Don't be embarrassed about not being able to swim, he scoffed, "hey, you can swim, I saw it, you stayed up. I just helped you," he told her, setting her internal proud alarms off.

"Okay," I mumbled, not really sure what to say to him, feeling slightly uncomfortable in the bathing suit as well.

"Go check on Lester," he told me, thankfully not expecting anything.

I turned and went toward where Lester was. Glancing around to see if she could see her wet clothes. She was of course assuming that they had been brought up from the deck – heck, assuming that they even made it out of the water. She hadn't thought of that yet, the possibility of that -seen as she had them on when she went into the water, and not when she was pulled onto the deck- Lester hadn't saved them when she did his knight in glistening bathing suit thing.

She stopped by Lester and pulled one of the chairs out, dragging it a couple extra inches away, and dropping herself skillfully into the chair. "You didn't happen to save my clothes as well did you?" She asked as she looked around more.

--

She saw Lester grin and shut off the pump. "Yeah, actually I did happen to save your clothes," he told her.

"Thats good," she said, "because apparently they needed rescuing as well, I mean I'm almost positive I was wearing them when I went in, and I wasn't when I...was out," she stumbled over the words, not sure whether to say got out, was out or came to. "They can't swim either, so I was hoping you didn't just let them go to the bottom," she said recovering quickly and throwing on a bit smile for his sake.

Lester's eyes were serious. "They were weighing you down, you had no chance with them on," he told her.

"I know," she told him, keeping her tone playful. "I was just kidding, Lester."

"Well stop," he said, dragging the smile from Jade's face. "Don't brush this off and make it a joke. Stop hiding."

"ME?!" She shouted in outrage. "_I_ need to stop hiding? This coming from Mr. Topic Change and In Control," she snapped.

Unlike Jade's wandering eyes, unable to rest in one place for too long, Lester's were staring perfectly still and non wavering...at the bridge of her nose, a trick he'd learned years ago to looking people in the eye without really looking them in the eye, but making it look like he was.

"Don't turn this on me," he demanded.

Jade cut in before he could go on. "I only asked if my clothes were saved. If they were sitting at the bottom of the lake, or draped over a chair somewhere on the patio drying in the sun. If I wanted a psychological profile from you, I'd ask!" she stood and made to make her get away, stopping off in anger. She'd ask someone else. Anyone should know.

"Stop, wait," he said quickly, grabbing her arm. "I'm sorry," he said, pulling her down onto his lap slowly, but turning her sideways. She felt like a child, yet it was almost odder because she knew she wasn't, but was sitting on his lap anyways.

"It's just annoying when you turn things on the other person when they're being serious. Even though it's like you don't even mean to, you just do."

She had her face turned away just like she'd done a couple minutes ago with Lester. It was starting to get old. The only difference between doing it to Lester and Ranger is that while Ranger is just weird with the physical touching her, as if he is afraid to touch her, and talks to her carefully, Lester is more blunt, and easily pulls her onto his lap, though most of that has to do with _her_ comfort level with them.

Lester simply pulls her down onto his lap, not minding, and Ranger does a single fingered touch to the jaw to keep eye contact. With Lester she'd sleep on his lap, she trusted him and was so comfortable with him. Ranger, she'd probably be more likely to nap wit ha snake than with him, though his last display did rack him up a lot of bonus points.

They shared a moment of silence before she hopped up out of his lap, hiding the smile when she was free from him purely because he wasn't prepared. "Where's my clothes?"

"Over by where Ranger and Steph were," he told her, waving his hand in the general direction, then grabbing the blown up stuff, and heading toward the dock.

Jade moved quickly but carefully to the spot Range rand Steph had been sitting, and spied her shirt and shorts sitting over the edge of the chair like she assumed they would be. She pulled the shirt on first, her mouth forming an 'o' when she felt the damp cold fabric against her warm and dry stomach. Her suit was still wet, so that wasn't bad but it was cool against her skin.

She shimmied her shorts on, and rolled the rim of them over once, making them half an inch shorter, but making them have access to the straps that tightened them. It also helped her tan more of her legs without wearing simply the tiny bikini...at least for now. She had a feeling that the clothes weren't going to make it through the whole time in the water.

With her shorts and a t-shirt over her bathing suit, Jade half stumbled, half jogged down the slight hill from the patio to the dock.

Lester had already put everything in and Steph had claimed one of the large float, and was relaxing on it fingers lightly dancing across the top of the water creating ripples that carried for a few feet and disappeared. The other float was by the dock, a corner of it resting on top of it to keep it from drifting away in the slight breeze.

Lester was waiting for her in he water, moving slightly to stay afloat.

"So," Lester started. "Water first, then float, or float first, then water, or just float?"

"Water first?" She answered tentatively.

"Water it is," he said moving closer to the docks edge and her now crouching form. Picking her up was not too difficult seen as she was still close to half as much as he bench pressed.

11393

They ended up having an intense basketball game. Steph joined in, too. The teams ended up being Jade, Lester, and Junior, against Ranger, Steph and Bobby. Ranger and Lester were playing more against each other than against the other team.

Lester would grab Jade, and Ranger would grab Steph, and they'd put them on their shoulder, doing a little defense as the female on top of them would shoot the ball in over everyone else's heads.

The game ended up as a game of Chicken. Bobby verses Junior and Steph verse Jade, and Ranger verse Lester.

By the time they pulled themselves out of the water, over an hour later, Steph and Jade had given up on the boys and their competitive game

Once the sun started going down and the air was too nippy for Steph and Jade to sit and lounge in the air, they used their hands to paddle to the dock, Steph going first to help give a little leverage to help her daughter out without her pulling at the stitches anymore than she had that day.

Steph and Jade pulled towels around them, Jade colder and wetter than Steph because she'd opted to stay with her clothes on even in the water, while Steph's suit dried quickly and was only chilly from the bare skin. They started pulling their stuff together, Stephanie passing Jade her underwear and bra, causing a flush of red to cross Jade's face.

She continued up, wrapping her and her smaller articles of dry clothing into the towel and curling into a chair, leaning her head partly on her shoulder and partly on the chair's metal back. She yawned, the days fun and lack of work coming up on her. Her cheeks stretched with her yawn, and her eyes watered while her lungs burned for air.

She let out a long breath, and closer her mouth, smacking her lips together briefly to wet her now dry mouth. She shifted in her seat, stretching her back a little, creating a nice tug on her tired muscles.

She let out a content sigh as she closed her eyes, her lashes flickering against her cheeks softly.

The boys playing in the water, or finishing a game in there saw it too, and they were pies of baby goo, because they were looking at her like they would their own kid, and for some of them, like Ranger and despite common knowledge, Bobby did.

They finished up, though they had just been tossing the ball around in two on two, freely shooting it at the hoop, not keeping track of points. The four of them pulled themselves out of the water, Lester and Junior that had the short, naturally spiky hair shook their head, getting he extra drops out of it, while Ranger-though his hair was still cut short from when he'd cut it to not be recognized- didn't because he wouldn't if he had his long hair still.

Bobby, his bald head getting a bit of a reflection from the setting sun, just silently walked up the dock, grabbing his shirt from where he'd ditched it on the dirt, and continuing on to the patio as he pulled it over his head. He grabbed a towel and gave his shorts a quick pat dry, and ran it briefly across his chest, arms and legs, and brushed it across his head quickly.

Lester, Ranger and Junior did the same, quickly drying the water droplets off of them before getting everything together and started to bring things left.

There wasn't much, so Lester opted to stay behind and makes sure the girls got up okay with Ranger.

Ranger went to the chair Steph had curled up in, much like Jade had, though she had pulled another chair over and propped her feet up on it, and was sprawled out across the two of them, resting.

Lester and Ranger were smirking and shaking their head at the two of them and how alike they were at the same time as how unalike they were, and reveling in the oddity of it.

--

He carefully went up to Jade. "Jade, we're heading up," he said quietly so as not to startle her, but loud enough for her to hear.

She shifted, and he said her name again. She turned her head and opened her eyes, awareness in them. "Back to the house?" She asked.

He nodded and held out a hand to her. She grabbed it and he helped pull her up, catching her when her foot got caught on the bottom of the chair as she tried to put her feet down of the seat.

She grabbed her stuff, keeping the towel and her clothes wrapped tightly around her, and stuffed her feet into the shoes she wore down to the lake. Ranger's lips were tipped up as he came to the path with his arm around Stephanie.

Jade looked curious and confused and Lester just raised an eye brow with a smile. "Do I want to know?"

Ranger laughed. "Probably, I picked Steph out of the chair and she hit me in the shoulder then my chest," Steph was glaring at him.

"It wasn't funny, I could have hurt you," she protested.

"No it wasn't, but only because you could've gotten hurt, but Babe, breath I'm fine, if anything I really am worried it hurt you more," he said, taking hold of her right hand, gingerly touching her wrist. "You weren't holding your arm right, you could have easily broken it at that angle."

She pulled her arm away, and Ranger just squeezed her gently.

"What's the plan for tonight?" Lester asked after a moment of silence, glancing over at Ranger.

"Junior's doing dinner tonight, then Bobby is on cleanup, then everyone has to sit down so we can assess the plan for the next couple days. Then I think there might be a movie and some popcorn involved," he shot a small smile at Steph. "And we'll call it a night. Just getting settled in tonight, tomorrow we'll tackle the threat," he said, then glanced at everyone, taking in the look on Jade's face as well, to see what she thought.

She seemed to like the idea, seen as she was nodding, a slight smile on her face from Ranger's story.

They made it up to the house to find Junior had already begun dinner, presumably knowing what he was supposed to be making. Jade only let the thought that since Lester didn't know what the plan was, how did Bobby and junior, AKA, everyone else know. The thought only plagued her for a couple seconds before she took her wet, cold body to her room and locked the door.

She peeled the wet bathing suit from herself, and dropped it on the floor in a pile, than ran the towel over herself better, taking her hair from it's pony and drying it better as well. She grabbed her underwear and bra and slid them on, then a pair of cargo shorts from her bag, and a clean green shirt.

She tossed her wet shirt, shorts and bathing suit into the bathroom, and maneuvered her suitcase of clothes to the bed. She unzipped it, and pulled out some of the clothes, folding what had unfolded, and sorting it into respective piles by what they were.

She opened the top draw, and put in socks, underwear, bras, then shut the draw and opened the next one. She put all of her t-shirts on one side, and the few long sleeved ones she had on the other in a stack.

She repeated the process for the next draw, shorts on one side and the pants of the other. She opened the last draw, feeling the fullness of it as she pulled it open, and glanced inside. There were some blankets In there, most of them matching the room nicely, the others most likely just blankets that needed to be stored, and here was free room. Someone here might need it for a cold winter night.

She shut the draw and went into the bathroom, habitually shutting the door and locking it. She quickly relieved herself and washed her hands, then started to deal with her hair. Her hair, wet, in a bun equaled a very big mess. It wasn't too bad once she ran her fingers through it and shook it out a bit. She opted to leave it down, though, for the purpose of letting it dry.

Content that she looked at least presentable, she left her room and wandered down the hall to the kitchen, and took a peek at what was cooking, checking to see if anything was done, and how long if might take to finish.

She moved her weight to her other foot and made to go for the living room when Junior turned and looked at her, eyes flickering to hers, then at her clothes, and taking in the loose hair, and neatly knotted tan hemp around her left ankle, then back to her eyes again, meeting them briefly before nodding.

She gave him a half nod,mouth opening wide as another yawn took over her face. She turned away, titling her head down and covering her mouth with the back of her hand and squeezing her eyes shut against the burning sensation that swept through her eyes before they watered.

She resisted the urge to stretch her back, arms and legs, though mainly her lower back, and settled for rolling her shoulders. She figured if she had just stretched all the hell over the place right then, it's be a little weird, but also would hurt the stitches holding parts of her side together.

"Fifteen minutes," Junior said, his eyes flickering back to her again as he went between the food he was cooking and her, checking unnecessarily to see if she was listening.

Jade nodded and mumbled a thanks before heading into the living room, crawling up onto the couch, and taking advantage of it's length, and sprawling out on it with a comfortable sigh.

The position only lasted a couple of seconds because she was forced to curl onto her side, resting her head on a pillow propped on the the arm rest of the couch.

The house wasn't _hot_, but it wasn't cold, it was a warmish temperature just bordering on the side of chilly, leaving a slight set of goose bumps on her arms and legs and sending shivers up her spine. She tried to shake it off, and buried herself into the couch more, then sighed and dropped some pillows on her cold feet.

A blanket dropped onto her, coating her in a heavy darkness for a frighting moment before it pulled off her head and she looked up at Lester who was looking down at her grinning. She turned his head. "She's right here," he said to someone out of her line of sight. Whoever it was moved closer, and she heard the rustle of clothes before she saw Steph's familiar face, and then Ranger's pop into sight. Steph leaned on the couch, smiling.

"So, did you like it out there?" She asked, keeping the subject and conversation light in an attempt to talk her out of the information that she wanted.

Jade frowned, the skin between her eyebrows wrinkling in."Yeah, it was fun," she said.

Steph huffed slightly and squealed as she went to hop over the couch. Rangers hands caught her mid air, though on her path, she was going to either overshoot, or hit her foot and wiped out hard on the floor.

He steered her decent, and dropped her down on the couch by Jade's feet, but not on her.

Jade scooted her feet to the side and grunted softly, barely audibly as she got to her back, pulling the soft heavy blanket Lester had draped over her all the way up to her chin, then sighed.

"What do you want to know?"

Steph blinked at her, then gave a fake smile. "What do you mean? I just asked if you liked it," Steph said, trying to defend herself.

Jade rolled her eyes. "Stop trying to soften me up like butter. If you want to know something, then ask, don't prance around it," Jade said, glancing at where her watch would normally be. It wasn't there, and she frowned slightly as she thought back to the last time that she had seen it.

She couldn't remember, so she ignored it and estimated how long she'd been sitting there, and if there was any possibility that Junior was done with dinner by then. Boy she hoped so, not only because she was so hungry she could make her stomach growl by pushing it in and out, but because she wanted an excuse to get out of answering the questions that she was almost positive were going to be firing at her, though they would try to soften the blow to that too, by coating it with sugar and making it seem like an innocent enough question.

Jade glanced nervously to the kitchen, her foot shaking side to side without the outlet for bouncing her leg.

Lester and Ranger moved around the couch, going to the chairs on the side of it and sitting down on the edges of it. They were silent, and neither moved for a second, then Lester scooted forward just a bit, and caught her foot gently, locking eyes with her and stopping the movement of her foot.

She fought the urge to shake something else, and shot a nervous glance at the kitchen, feeling as if she should have a spot light on her, and be sweating because she did something wrong, like she was in an interrogation room.

"Hey," Ranger said her name quietly, and she looked over at him sharply, eyes wide.

His eyebrows raised a little and he kept his eyes locked with her. "You don't have to worry about anything, and we don't have to do this now, but we will get to it at some point.

"Can I ask you a really simple question?" Ranger asked. "Just a yes or no, you don't even have to talk, just nod your head," he told her.

She took a deep breath, like she was preparing for a blow.

"Do you know why this person is after _you_?" He asked slowly.

Jade's eye's cut from his quickly, and she looked at everything in the room _but_ him. He made as if to catch her chin, and she pulled away, her head swaying as if trying to make up her mind. "Yes," she finally said, pulling her face and body far enough away from him that her couldn't reach her unless he moved, and if he did, she'd easily have the chance to get away.

"Jade, butterfly, we're not mad at you for it, we just want to help, but to do that, we need you to tell us why he is after you. Don't feel too pressured though it can wait," Steph said. "Just know that we're hear to talk-"

"Please don't," Jade finally said, her voice a whisper that was a cross between begging and whimpering. "I'm sorry, just...don't, please-" she let out a strangled laugh . "Jesus I'm fucking begging," she said under her breath, pulling herself to her feet and making a quick run for the hall, and went into her room, shouting out a 'I'm not hungry' as she slammed the door in Lester's face.

His palms were on the door, his head leaning against it. "Jade," he whispered, too quiet for her to hear. He sighed and decided to let her have the time to herself, and went out to the kitchen to find out the ETA for dinner.

Jade didn't leave her room for the rest of the night, and for the time through dinner and a bit after and before, no one went to talk to her, though Ranger, Lester and Steph were all tempted too, they didn't know quite what to say seen as they weren't positive of what they had said to upset her to the point where she

Dinner was quiet, everyone simply eating their food and Bobby starting in on the pots that Junior had cooked with, that didn't go in the dishwasher, while Ranger had Lester and Steph and Junior sit down, though he had planned to also have Jade there, he gave them the quick over view of what was happening. He told them who was cooking and cleaning for each meal the next day, and told them that tomorrow they'd start the actually work on trying to figure out who's behind the threats.

Once Ranger got out all of the stuff he needed to talk about and address, he told Lester and Steph to get some sleep, though he already knew that he would be getting Steph to sleep, and helping make sure she stayed that way.

Lester stood and murmured 'night'. He took a couple steps down the hall before slowing and stopping all together. He stood in the hall for a couple beats, then turned and walked past the table Steph and Ranger were still at, and into the kitchen.

He opened the fridge and grabbed the container with left overs in it and grabbed a plate. He dumped the contents of the container on the plate, and stuck the plate in the microwave, then waited. When it beeped, he took it out, grabbed a fork and a napkin, and used the back of his hand to push the container that the food was in, into the sink.

Checking to see he had everything, he walked back down the hall, nodding to Ranger and Steph again as he went.

He stopped just outside Jade's door, and knocked softly enough it wouldn't wake her if she was asleep, but loud enough for her to hear.

"Jade?"

"Yeah," she replied.

"Can I come in? I brought you some dinner," he told her ,adding in the food he carried as a bribe to the pot.

There was a pause. "I'm not hungry, I told you that," she said.

Lester noticed that she didn't say 'go away' or 'leave me alone' or anything equally as melodramatic. He also noted that she hadn't actually answered his question about coming in.

"If you aren't hungry, then why were you in the kitchen waiting for dinner? Plus you're a lot like your mother and she's always hungry and we haven't eaten in hours," Lester argued.

Jade was grasping at non existent straws. "The sedative isn't wearing off well, and it's making me really woozy, my stomach doesn't agree with eating right now. I' fine, really Lester," Jade said, her voice hoarse and tired.

Jade sat in her room on the bed with her laptop, attempting to write a journal entry, but failing and ending up making a web page that matched her mood. She started by writing out the basic HTML and CSS code, leaving out the color values and image names because she didn't know them yet.

She opened up her crack copy of Photo Shop CS3, and started playing around. She made a couple banners and the links in a set of colors, keeping all of them in the same color scheme.

When she was done with all of them, she brought the banners back up and set them side by side to decide which one she liked the best. With her answer, she uploaded all of the banners and links to her Dream Host web server, and added the color values and image names to the code.

She opened the site up and checked it. It worked, but she noticed a blue ring around her links. She went to the code and added the forgotten tag for the border, setting it to zero.

She had just opened Photo Shop back up with the thought of making more skins for the site, when she heard Lester at the door. Her red eyes looked at the door with horror, hoping he didn't find that the door didn't lock and come in.

She had cried for very little time, stopping herself and mentally yelling at herself for being so weak and breaking down so easily. Then she'd grabbed her laptop and started.

"Jade," Lester said through the door, his voice getting annoyed, worried and carrying a warning at the same time. "Can I please come in?"

"No?" Jade said. "I'm really not hungry, Lester, can you just," she paused, thinking about how to say it. "Leave me alone? Let me be? I just-" she broke off. She felt the tears welling up behind her eyes again, and she frowned, swiping at them furiously. "_Please_," she begged.

"I'm coming in, Jade, cover yourself if necessary," he warned her, his patience dying and simply pausing and opening the door to her room. She was sitting on her bed, head faced completely down so all he saw were her mid cheek long bangs in her face, the rest of her hair pulled back into a loose pony-tail. She was working on her computer, and he would have believed that she was simply trying to ignore him, and was just playing on her computer until he saw a tear fall onto her computer. Her finger moved to wipe it away, barely giving it time to hit the machine.

Lester walked to the bed and sat on the side near her, but on the opposite side, and sat the plate down, pushing the still steaming food to where to where it was flat and she could easily see it and smell it.

Lester heard her stomach start to growl for a second before she stopped it, her stomach pushing out. She ignored him, or did as best as possible, keeping her face down and not looking up at him. He could, though, see the glances she was sending to the food.

Lester sighed. "Just eat it, Jade. This isn't proving anything, and I'm not going to make you saw anything. Sleep tight," he said, standing and going to the door. He looked back to catch a glance of her tear-streaked face with red puffy eyes for a fraction of a second before they pivoted to the computer again.

He shook his head and left the room, moving down to the room next to hers and going in. He did his bathroom stuff, took a quick shower to rinse off, and dropped into the bed in a pair of dark green sweat pants. He stared at the ceiling for well over an hour before he drifted off to sleep unknowingly.

11393 -!!#(#-11393

Okay, so theres that.

Cool cat(since you're anonymous and can't send reply and your question is one others might have) – Lester doesn't really have a defined age in my mind for this story, because he has to be old enough to go through SEALs, and normally I saw 21-23, but that is too young for SEALs, seen as the training and entire process is not that short. So, if I had to say, I'd say late twenties, early thirties, like Ranger and Steph. I still think of him as a 22 year old though. I can grantee you though their relationship is awesome, that they wont be dating or a couple. Thats too much like incest at this point, and it would be illegal for them to "_get it on"_. Plus, I've already written out a bunch of outlines and I plan on introducing another character a bit more and getting to know him-hopefully getting to bring him actually into the story in the epilogue, or end of this. He'll be talked about a lot though, you'll see as you go.

I love the reviews guys, they encourage me to write _this _story, seen as I have so many others I'm working on, most of them not posted. Lots of Stargate Atlantis.

Also, I apologize if any parts seem a bit like, broken up, or- well, I write a page or three, or seven, at the daycare I work at, through nap time, so most of it is written in a notebook, then typed up, and I try to read the part before and blend it, but I'm truly sorry to anyone who can see where it's broken into chunks that are random and if it bothers them. I'm going to try and fix it.

Anybody interested in the project I'm doing this summer (Summerwrite-150,000 words in four months, all original) They should check out the Live Journal community about it. It starts the first day of May and goes until the last day of August, and it should be happening next year as well. For anyone curious, my Live Journal screen name is rangersteph__I know that it's completely, like, no way that could be. :D I'm that much of a dork :D.

PS- I finally put up the pictures for the house...it's not very well to scale for the pond, but there wasn't enough room.

Epic Sock Owner-Peanut16-RangerSteph-Bob.


	19. Chapters 19, 20 and 21

Is there even a way to apologize enough for a 2 year hiatus? If anyone is even still reading these (lord knows why), here are the next 3 chapters. Most of these three were already written November 2008, but after nanowrimo ended I ditched writing and forgot about them hidden away on the lost jumpdrives. I dug them out today and reread some terrible stuff, then dragged these to a new document and finished off what I had already written. I love you all very much.

For my dedicated readers,

-Erin

**Chapter 19**

The next morning, Lester woke to a nearly silent house. Bobby and Junior sat at the kitchen barstools, he found, as he emerged from the hall to the open room. "Morning," he said, quickly running a hand through his messy hair.

"Morning Lester," Bobby said.

Junior looked over at him curiously, "do you like her?"

Lester stopped in his tracks, thinking about how to respond correctly. "I love her like a little sibling, and I'd do anything to protect her...but not like that Junior, thats practically illegal to think about, anyway."

"Just wondering," Junior protested, holding his hands up defensively. "She does have an amazing body anyway, especially for a teenager," he said.

"Yeah," Lester agreed, then smirked slightly. "I thin she had a crush on someone," he informed Junior. "This guy, Leo. Every time she speaks of him, she gets all smiley...and she's quick to defend him too. It's adorable."

Bobby laughed, "I think I remember my first crush, this girl, Mindy," he paused and shook his head and looked as if remembering full technicolor memory, "damn she was fine. She had the body, lack of brains so she didn't argue when I told her something dumb, but she was really good in bed."

"You slept with the first girl you had a crush on?"

"Mmmm, she was the first girl I actually liked that I slept with, since I was old enough to actually have a crush on someone and not have it like the little girl I walked around with when I was five, holding hands saying we were gonna get married. Haven't seen her since I was maybe seven," he added. "Thats how well real love work out it's over-rated. But," he amended, "for her sake though, I hope that she does stay with him. If this, Leo kid makes her that happy then he's a good choice."

"Yea, he's the one that was with her when she kidnapped by the man stalking her.

"Oh," he laughed, "yea, that was very defensive on her part. Sounds like a good guy for her. He took a nice punch too."

Lester nodded appreciatively, thinking off the possibilities of what could have happened had he not been there to inform someone of her disappearance. That he was there to see her and help her through all the messy aftermath of the kidnapping, and from what he'd understood from her, the physical aftermath as well. He didn't like that she had been hurt or to think that there was even the possibly that she could have been hurt so badly, that he might not have been there and she would have been alone through it all with no hope of being saved because she was sure that no one would have known.

"Okay, so did you get what you needed to?" Lester asked Bobby.

"He nodded, yea, got a little, not much but it's a good start that might help if anyone else got something that would help. You know where they might have been seen hanging out or passing by frequently or anything? Or if someone knows because that with what I have would tell us exactly what we need to take them down safely," there was a pause, "not to pry too much, but they haven't actually told us where she was yet. They said places at the place but we don't know the state or city, so there is no chance of figuring where they are if we don't have a start. If anyone knows where they hang out it's her. She knows," he added with a slight sound of epiphany. "She's holding back, Lester. What is she up to? She's doing or planning something that we don't know and it has to do with location..." he trailed off, remembering her posture, her words, her ever using frases that had to do with leaving the safe house, about seeing Leo or anyone.

"I think she's going to try and leave. I think that she want s to leave, that she is going to leave without us. SHIT," he cursed as he turned and went to his clothes that held a set of the keys in them to the SUV and his cell phone. Neither were there, but his wallet was, minus his credit card and some cash. "She's got the keys to the SUV, my card, some cash and a cell phone with service everywhere. Where is Ranger," he asked, his voice deadly calm.

Lester turned and walked down the hall, being careful to keep his pace soft and comfortable as to not tip Jade off. He had to admit. She was good. He hadn't noticed anything. To him she was perfectly happy, normal about what was going on. Hell he thought that she was on board with the plan and eager to help find them with their help. He was wrong apparently. The stinging pain of betrayal ripped through his body making him want to scream. But he didn't. He kept himself calm and knocked on Ranger's door.

"Yo Ranger!," he called through the door. "Got a few questions for you, Bossman," he said, shifting so he looked comfortable on his feet, but kept his intense eye focussed toward the door.

When it swung open, he caught his eyes and stepped in following Ranger's signal of opening the door wider and gesturing him in with a wave of his hand. "Whats happening?" He asked when he shut the door, positioning himself in front of Lester.

"Me and Bobby have reason to believe that Jade is going to leave. Actually, she has the Keys, cellphone, money and his card. Unless someone else took them then she's ditching. Plus, think of all the times she's mentioned seeing people again. "

He nodded, then froze, his posture just a little more tense than before. "Have you checked that she's here?"

"No, I just woke up, assumed someone else checked on her throughout the night."

"Everyone was sleeping, I checked on her maybe an hour ago but she could have left anytime after that."

Ranger barely finished before Lester turned and ran from the room, barging into Jade's room without knocking. He could hear the water running in the bathroom and knocked on the door. "Jade? You in there? Can I come in?" When there was no answer he opened the door and took a deep breath. The curtain was pulled shut, so he sighed. "Jade, please answer me, tell me you're here, because I'm about to open the curtain and I don't think you'd like it if you were naked in there."

When Theresa once again only the sound of the shower he started opening the shower, the cursed loudly. "OH FUCK," it was said with venom and anger and frustration, lost hope and betrayal all at once.

He left the room and stood int the hall way, briefly allowing himself to feel the betrayal. He had trusted her so much. Not again though. He didn't think he'd be able to trust her again, or at least for a while. His hands knotted in his hair for a moment and he bent slightly, letting out an angry growl before straightening again, pulling up his soldier mode and not letting himself care, just focussing on the objective of finding the subject.

"She's gone!" He shouted out. Ranger and Bobby were the firsts there, then Junior and Steph showed up looking slightly confused, Steph's face with a hint of disbelief. "She's gone? Jade?" Steph questioned waking up groggily.

"Yea, she's gone. She took the keys, cash, my card and my phone," Bobby told her.

"Oh god," Steph muttered groaning. "She's got more money than that, too. She's got her checking account card too, it's got a lot on it. Enough to get her back to her home for sure. She could put a down payment on a house with the money she's got."

"How good is she with a car?" Ranger asked calmly.

"She's driven before, but never went and took classes yet, she was going to start next summer. But she knows the basics, she was always asking questions, driving little gold carts and go karts, she used to have an infatuation with them, we took her one rides, bought her a go kart one Christmas, but I don't think she'd be good on a highway. We have the advantage, she doesn't know the area and the SUV has a tracker on it," Steph said.

Ranger nodded and pulled out his cell and dialed the control room.

"Rangeman LLC," Ram answered briskly.

"It's me," Ranger said. "Pull up the tracker on the SUV we took with us and tell me where it is in relation to my cell."

"Just a minute...okay, northeast about three fourths of a mile,," he went to say something then muttered quickly. "Boss, something just happened, the signal was a bit fuzzy at first, and it just disconnected, sending out the automatic distress signal it sends when in an accident or crashed. Everything okay?"

"I'll keep in touch," he said and hung up, noting where he was and where North East would once outside the house. He hit the outside and started jogging it in a straight line telling Lester to stay there with Steph. He'd need Junior for his car mechanics if it was crashed and Bobby if she was hurt. He sped up to a run, knowing full well that the boys could keep up with him. He could smell a hint of smoke in the air as he to closer to where he thought the car was to be.

He found it against a tree, the entire front wrapped around it, windows smashed and smoke coming from the front. He ran to the drivers side and found her slumped over in her seat, face dropping into the air bag, seat belt holding her partially up. He allowed a momentary flash of happiness to spur through him at the knowledge that she'd at least put on the belt.

There was a line of blood running down the left side of her face, and from what he could see though the window her stitches had ripped again. He tried the handle, and when it didn't work he glanced at Junior to see if he knew a way to open it once it was crushed shut. He stepped forward and reached in, grabbing at something, a second later the door popped open and he bent it back farther than it was supposed to go, giving Ranger more space to get at her.

"Just be careful not to shift her too much, she could be hurt," Bobby warned.

Ranger nodded and gently pushed her body back against the seat,pressing his fingers to her neck and letting out a big sigh when he felt a pulse thumping steadily beneath them. He reached around her, carefully stepping one foot up onto the extra step of the SUV, and undid her seatbelt, being sure not to let her fall forward. He slid his hands under her knees and behind her back and pulled her from the car. He pivoted and laid her down on the ground, watching as Bobby dropped down beside her and started checking her over.

She must have changed into her outfit before she left, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt sprouting 'Natural Beauty' and a tinkerbell in rainbow. He checked her pulse, not only that it was still there but he saw his lips moving as he counted the number of beats and found the blood pressure as well. He looked over every inch of exposed skin, then pulled her shirt up and started examining her stab wound and the stitches. It seemed like some of them had ripped, pulling on the skin around it as well, widening it, probably causing excruciating pain, he could remember his own stitches ripping at numerous points in his life, and it never felt any better.

He noted, having more time to look at her, that she was in fact, built well, he could see skeletal formation resembled Morelli's a lot, giving her the body to build upon, to deck out with muscles after some work. She was still feminine though, it was obvious. The girly shape to the muscles covered in a puke colored bruises to a certain degree, but not enough to blanket them.

Bobby moved from her stomach and pulled her shirt down, then moved to her head, inspecting the cut above her left eye to make sure that it wasn't going to kill her. That was unlikely though. He checked her spine from what he could get at without rolling her or moving her too much, the moved to the most obviously injured place in any car accident. The shoulder, her left one in this case, the one the seat belt was strapped over. He pulled at the collar to her shirt, basically looking down her shirt to see and feel the damage to the shoulder. He pressed on it, and she groaned. He pulled back, lifting her eye lids gently with a pull to the skin by her eyebrow, watching as they were too dilated for his liking. He figured she had a concussion from the force of the blow.

"Junior, can you give me an estimate at how fast she was going from the damage to the car?"

He looked over at the car with a studying eye, then looked inside at the dashboard. "roughly 60, the speedometer smashed upon impact, matches up with the damage as well," he added.

"Shit," Bobby muttered. "She's so young, and her body, though strong, is still growing, making it more fragile, especially her head which receives the blunt of the damage. I'm almost positive that she has a concussion, and I think her shoulder might be dislocated, but it could be just a little swollen and bruised. Hope for that, because if it's dislocated I don't know if I'll be able to put it back into socket, so one or both of you will be doing it I do this to men your age," he added when he Ranger sent him a weird look. "Not teenage girls."

Ranger nodded, accepting that. "Jade, can you hear me? If you can, I need you to relax, we need to check your shoulder now, or when we get back to the house, because we think it's dislocated, so we're going to need to take your shirt off."

She tensed, then whimpered at the pain, attempting to cringe away from Ranger and get up.

He placed a large hand on her good shoulder and pushed her back down. Her eyes flew open, filled with confusion, a wild look taking over as she felt herself get restrained. He saw her fist go flying and grabbed t gently, not wanting to hurt her or leather hurt herself.

"Jade, stop, it's me, Ranger. Take a deep breath and relax for me, okay? Can you do that for me? Can you relax and take a deep breath? I'm going to pick you up and we're going to get a head start on the three quarters of a mile hike back. Its's going to take a bit of time."

When she started to object, the silence worrying her, he continued to speak to her, finding that it soothed her. "Where were you going?" He asked, trying to keep his voice soft and the anger at her leaving from it.

"Home. I want to go home. I miss Leo. I need him, I need his hugs, they make everything better," she said, tears appearing in her eyes. "I'm sorry I crashed your car, now we're all stranded and I don't have a way of leaving anyway, It was so stupid of me, but I was swimming with Lester and I had considered leaving several times, but after swimming with Lester I had a really strong urge to see him, and lay in my own bed. I had started the shower, but I was missing things in there, the things that make it home. We have bright yellow and lim green tiles in my bathroom at home, not blue. And my room is themed like forest, lots of green and flowers and candles, and I light them every night, and let the in-scent burn as I sleep. I listen to music when I shower, the radio mostly, and It's really care free, and here I'm showering because I'm learning to swim while hiding from a some old fart who wants to check on his science project.

"At home I have by logic puzzle books, and my teenage girl magazines, and a treadmill I'd walk on while reading, then ditch the magazine and run for a while. At school I had track practice. I did indoor and outdoor track, both spring and winter, and I did Cross Country running, and I was pretty good, but I did it for fun. I had my websites that I maintained, the ones I worked hard on, and kept up to date. Then I had my babysitting jobs. I mean, I was racking in 150 in two weeks for a couple hours of babysitting two or three times a week. And it wasn't hard, sometimes I put them to bed or helped them get ready, but most of the times I just played with them for an hour or two while their parent ran to the store or went out on a dinner date with a friend." She shifted in his arms, her right shoulder getting closer to him. She grasped at his shirt as best as she could and pressed her face into it as well. She could feel his chest vibrating slightly as he spoke, but her blood was pounding in her ears, and as she took stock of the aches in her body, the feeling of loosing blood in the amounts she was made everything white, and then suddenly black as she passed out.

Ranger had to compensate for the sudden change in her weight. She went from not hard to hold to dead weight all of a sudden, and dead weight is every single muscle in her body, every ounce of fat, bones, blood, and water, all in his arms suddenly, like falling there. He staggered before he was able to shift his arms and pick up the pace for the last stretch of the walk, knowing that the safe house was just through the trees ahead. When he shifted her, he felt his wet shirt shift and grimaced. Her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were wet from her tears.

Junior moved ahead of them and opened the door to the safe house,. He quickly walked to the kitchen so he could lay her on the counter. It would give Bobby the best height and surface to stitch her back up, and be easiest to clean blood off of. Junior moved to the opposite side of the table to make sure that she didd't fall off the table if she shifted, like a baby on a changing table, you never left them alone. Lester and Steph came into the room, Steph looking worried, her face expressing her surprise and fear when she spied her daughter sprawled across the counter unconscious. Lester's' face was better trained, and though his face aw very carefully blank, he could see the tension around his eyes that appeared when he saw her over there. His movements were stiff as he walked over to the table, working to keep his steps calm and separated.

Bobby ran to the bathroom off the hall and came back with a first aid kit that he had brought to the safe house with him. He was quick as he went back to the table, pulling over one of the tall stool like chairs ad opening the first aid kit. He pulled out the important things and was as quick as he possibly could be as he got the needle ready to the stitch up the wound with the medical thread. He grabbed a piece of gauze and prepped it with hydrogen peroxide, then pulled at the bloodily shirt, pulling it up and off.

"Hey!" Lester shouted at him.

"I need to get to the area to stitch up the wound, Lester."

"You could have just pulled it up, not off," Lester defended.

"I need to get to her shoulder directly after. It's possible that it is dislocated, in fact, I think it is."

Lester just ground his teeth together and smoothed his face over with an impartial look of uncaring. Bobby pushed talking to him about that until later, and focussed back on the girl laying on the table in front of him with a knife wound seeping blood faster than he liked. He pressed gauze pad to it, then spilt some extra peroxide over her stomach and used a dry pad to wipe up the blood around the around so he could se it clearly. Next was making sure that the wound wasn't bleeding so much, so he pressed a wad of them to it and pressed, glad that she had passed out, because pressing against it that hard would hurt like hell. He continued to work on her wound until he had cleaned and stitched it up with skill evident in the precision of the stitch and the steady movements of his hands, the procedure a practiced ease with the lack of hesitation.

**Chapter 20**

When Bobby was done, he dumped his used took and dirties into a single bag and tied it off tight, then dumped it in another bag before putting it in the garbage container. He scrubbed his hands and placed another pair of gloves on and moved up to her shoulder to probe the area with his index finger and middle finger. When he felt what he was searching for he frowned and grimaced, then carefully started to roll her over, looking across the counter at Ranger to hold her steady. He wrapped his hands around her shoulder and felt behind it, feeling it out of socket.

"Dislocated.," he said finally.

"Okay, I'm all done with her, but you get to relocate it, because I wont." Now Bobby wasn't a coward and he knew that, but he would not and could not relocate a 15 or whatever olds shoulder. He worked with men who had gone through essential training, and would sit there and if not for him, do it themselves and do it close to right, but not perfectly like he could. The body of a female teenager was different in many, many ways from a man's, and he was more likely to fuck it up by doing it himself than letting, or making in his case, someone else do it.

"Hey, Lester, can I talk to you?" He asked ditching his gloves again and moving over by Lester.

Lester nodded and turned, toward after him, following him down the hall where Bobby stopped. "Look Lester, just listen first okay?" At Lester's nod, he continued., "I understand that you must feel really betrayed that she left and tried to escape, but she's going to be in a lot of pain, both physically and mentally when she wakes up. Do you want to know why she left? Because I think you need to know."

"No, I don't care about excuses, she left. she's the one that tried to escape and got herself hurt I'm not going to feel bad for her. I'm going to start treating her more like the subject like I'm supposed to. I let her in too much and I got hurt. My own damn fault. Now I learned my lesson and I need to deal with it. I need to be more objective. Extract information, protect and solve the problem. Thats all," he said and walked off.

He was in sweats and a t-shirt and had his sneakers on and laced. He was going running. Bobby should have known that his friend'd be prepared to run whenever possible, especially now, when he was having emotional problems. Running was his get-away, and he could remember back years ago, before they joined the military, how much he loved running. Said he'd been in love with it since high school. It made him feel amazing. He liked to clear his head, to him it was like a drug to him. He watched him turn the corner, calling to Ranger over his shoulder that he was going for a fun and he'd be back soon enough.

Lester left, his face still blank, though he felt angry again at her betrayal, and a little at himself for not listening to he excuse because now he was really curious as to why she would steal the car to leave, probably going home, but her excuse as to why had to be pretty good. It had Ranger being nice to her, then again he wouldn't have showed his anger at her while she was unconscious, though he was going to have a talk with her when she woke up, thats for sure.

He picked up the pace and let the world melt away around him, his thoughts moving to the sound of his breathing and movement of his feet over the roots that littered the forest floor.

Junior was charged with the duty of sitting her up and holding her still while Ranger moved and grabbed her arm. He took a deep breath and made Steph leave the room before he gave a sharp tug turn and pushed it into socked with a crack. Junior shivered and grabbed her shirt, then slid it over her head gently, careful of her arm and stab wound. He also, at the nod of Ranger, scooped her the rest of the way in his arms and carried her to her room and laid her in her bed. He carefully placed her arm next to her and pulled a few light blankets over her.

Not long after Junior left her room, the loneliness and darkness crept into her subconscious, moving it from blank to visions of darkness, the difference being she felt the darkness. She felt every inch of it, it's cold emptiness, the expanse of nothingness and the feeling of impending doom that crowded around her.

Something was binding her the darkness, she thought, though there was no 'ground' or up or down or anything, just blackness, she was floating almost, but then those arms, hands gripping her, grabbing at her. They restrained her, hurt her, causing her chest to burn. She tried to scream but nothing came out, or... it did and there was nothing for it to echo off, nothing to vibrate and carry the sound waves.

The hands got a little tighter, some rubbing across her, pressing against the burn, talking to her, trying to persuade her, but it was all muffled, everything foggy, unfocussed, like she was submerged in a tank of water, and she was being drowned as the air sucked from her lungs at the same time.

She felt herself being lifted from the water, dragged out by the begging hands, her ears draining of the fluid slightly before she could depict what they were saying, those strange muffled voices. It was her name, she believed, if that was her name, her memory wasn't right.

Everyone was in her room, even Lester, allowing himself to fear for her, to feel again. Her wound was seeping tiny bits of blood where the stitches were starting to pull at the skin around it. She was thrashing around worse than he'd seen yet, resisting our attempts at calming her. He even stepped in himself and tried speaking to her. Tears only started to run down her cheeks as she started to gasp, then for a terrifying moment, stopped breathing though her heart beat strong. After a full twenty seconds of heart breaking fear from everyone, especially Lester, her flailing slowing, had jumped to life again with a large gas, and he spoke to her again, trying to call her name, to call to her.

She still gasped and rasped and cried, though her body slowed, slowing it's bucking against Bobby hands tightly holding down on her abdomen, holding the new stitch work from coming undone by ripping the skin around it and not the thread itself. She let out a sob, "please don't leave me alone, please," her arm reached out and grabbed the first thing it touched, happening to be the arm of Lester who was trying hard to pretend like he wasn't there anymore.

He had started pushing away the feeling, to push away it all and be cynical and worried about her from a life or death and sanity point of view. He stood up but didn't push the arm off yet and stood, letting his eyes go cold and detached.

He restrained himself from calling her Miss Plum, yet left all emotion in his voice at his feet. "Jade. You are fine, it was a nightmare. Bobby's going to check you over," he ended, patting her arm and finally pushing it off as her eyes opened. The hurt was easily seen. Her posture changed and she forced herself to become aware of what was going on and she started breathing harder, trying to figure what to say to them, how to tell them to leave her alone, to be alone to think, to grieve. She wanted Leo more than ever, and if she thought she wanted a hug before, now she needed a mega awesome super duper hug.

"Outside, Lester, now," she heard Ranger's stern voice say in a hushed tone that didn't escape the ears of Jade. She cringed visibly at the words, then barely glanced at Bobby and Junior, closing her eyes in hopes that they would disappear and leave her be. Steph was silent as she left after Ranger and Lester, knowing that Bobby would need space to check up on her.

"Jade?" It was Bobby, nagging at her carefully and quietly. "Jade? Ignore him, he's being ridiculous. I need you to tell me whats wrong with your abdomen, can you feel it?"

Her hands covered her face but she gasped almost silently, and nodded her head.

"Yea? How does your head feel, any strange confusion, fuzziness, blackness?"

She hesitated before shaking her head, remembering that it was only a dream, a nightmare and that it didn't matter if she heard, saw or felt dark and bluriness.

"I need you to move your hands so I can check for a concussion," Bobby told her, touching her hands lightly as if to persuade her to move her hands.

"nu-uh," she whimpered, feeling tears of rejection sting her eyes as she shook her head.

"Bobby," Junior said, looking at his friend and nodding his head to the door before silently opening it and gesturing out it. "Just for a few minutes, we can grab some coffee," he added at the hesitant look.

Conceding, he stood and left, glancing at Junior shutting the door. Junior held up a finger, waiting silently until he head the sobs start and gave Bobby a sad little smile.

When she heard the door finally shut, she let go, curling up and letting out a sob, the tears rolling down her face freely. She let the hurt, rejection, everything she felt fall from her in the form of the tears. They shook her body and pain wracked up her but she ignored it, focussing on the emotional first, needing to release the roller coaster that had been building inside of her for a while and finally burst from her.

By the time the tears had all stopped and she was left, laying curled up on her side, clutching the pain the emanated from her stab wound. She laid still after that whimpering in self pity, misery and slight pain. She wanted all of it to be over. She didn't ask for any of it. Why her? Why was she picked to be played with like a ginneu pig? How did it all end up so messed up? Her without Leo, without her friends and what she considered family, which was her mothers friends in California, not Ranger, Lester, Junior or Bobby no matter how nice they could be, or how cruel. She wanted her real friends, the ones like Leo that get punched for her, not the ones that get angry, huffy and give her the could shoulder when she does a some what dumb stunt and tries to go home.

"God," she muttered, "where are you when I need you Leo? Lester?" She felt tears start to well again and she took a deep breath poofing it out and sitting up, "I trusted you too, Lester."

She pushed the blanket off, examining her blood-drenched clothes and frowned. Her jeans were ripped and both were covered with dirt in a mix with the blood. She grabbed a pair of mesh shorts and a loose t-shirt that had her favorite number and 'VolleyBall' printed across the front, with 'Can You Dig It?' on the back. It was for the VolleyBall club she had been part of for a few weeks each year, nothing much, just something to do for fun after school in the heat. We all went to the beach, set up the next, dig down some court lines and layed a rope as them and started the game, normally taking a small run and soem stretches and warming up first, then a practice run and finally some playing.

She stumbled to her feet and into the bathroom, barely managing to catch the door frame before crashing to the ground. She held onto it continuously as she shuffled the last steps into the bathroom and shut the door louder than she meant to, the sound echoing through the room. She quickly turned the lock as she thought she could hear the door to the bedroom opening with a concerned call of her name.

Quicker, she ditched the clothes in her hands onto the floor and changed quickly into it, running the tooth brush over her teeth and flashing a smile at herself into the mirror. She also ran the hair brush through her straight dark hair, pulling it up and out of her face, two strands of hair stubbornly fell around her face.

She gave herself a check over after, leaning over the counter to look closer at the cut on her forehead, checking over, noticing and smiling at Bobby's precision work. She lifted her shirt to look at the reopened stab wound stitches, though they had finally not open with the slightest movements and had settled for annoying the hell out of her by tearing and pulling at her skin until it was enough to make her pass out. But it didn't. And she was still conscious, so she found that one a win on her side.

"Jade?" It was Bobby, his voice quiet as it was muffled through the door and over the sound of the blood rushing in her head. "Jade can you hear me? I think you have a concussion and I need to check your eyes. If you're standing up then sit down, now, please. We're coming in, don't move okay?"

"I'm fine, don't come in, it's my please, please don't come in, I need a little of my dignity back, a little of the appearance that I'm not this slutty little girl thats easy. Jesus, I've had so many people looking at me shirtless lately I feel really fucking exposed and naked with all of you staring at me all the time. Leave me alone just a little longer, please," she whined.

"Jade?" He paused and when there was no response he nodded to Junior who stood there with a tool to pick the lock. "We're coming in, Jade...Jade? Answer me, Jade," his voice had a hint of panic to it as he nodded to a doubtful Junior. He dutifully stepped forward and stuck it in the lock, twisting it easily and pushing the door open for Bobby to walk in.

He found her crouched on the lid of the toilet, biting her lip, her eyes weak and vulnerable all over again. She flashed them an angry glare and made the change effortlessly from weak to strong, though only in appearance, because she was never weak to begin with.

"All I have to do is flash the light in your eyes to watch dilation," he told her, "easy as pie."

"Why is pie easy?"

"Because it's good."

"So something good is easy? So what, is that the same with people too? A girl is good and she's easy, or she's not easy and therefore not good? Or is it the whole square is a rectangle but rectangle isn't a square?"

He paused for a second, obviously knocked off balance by the question.

"Square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn't a square," a new voice said, stepping around the corner, trying to look cold. Lester, his sweats baggy and his shirt tight, the contrast showing off his body sinfully well. But he was older and though hot in his own way, not as awesome as Leo. She drug her thoughts from Leo and squinted slightly

"No," she argued, jumping from the seat to the floor and crossing her arms defiantly, the only thing giving away that she was still injured being the ever so slight hitch in her breath as her body hit the ground, though covered expertly.

"Look, Jade, this is important and very easy to do, why does it have to be hard?" Bobby asked.

"Because it's her and when you least expect it she turns around and no longer does what she did before. Like a whole new person, totally throws you off your feet. Next thing you know she's gonna start fighting us, maybe she's the threat against Steph herself, sure is strange enough to be," his voice was cold while his eyes showed the hurt and anger.

His words pierced her heart and her brain like an ice pick. Before anyone could say anything, she was angry, really friggen angry and she clenched her fists, digging her finger nails into her palm. "How dare you? I feel bad enough that I'm the reason she's in danger, and I really don't mean to be, it's not like I asked this prick to kidnap me? To take me from my friends, and I sure as hell didn't ask for any of you to waste your precious time on a piece of shit like me who apparently is too hormonal for a PLAYER like you. Mr. Beautiful and Gorgeous so he doesn't have to call them by their names, so he doesn't have to make real connections, only the ones he wants to, and the ones he think will benefit him later." She watched the expressions run across his face one after another but didn't stop, in fact, when she saw the reaction she was looking for she dug deeper, going for pay dirt.

"Oh now you're scared aren't you? Now I'm getting somewhere. You must be the one night stand type a guy, and it just kills you that I have a boy who would stand in front of me to protect me without getting paid to do it. He's the one that put me back together and you're trying to find the credit for teaching me to swim an all, well good as fuck way to get me to trust you. If that was what you were going for then you hit it. You got my trust," she screamed at him.

"Thats backwards, I'm the one who trusted you, who let myself get close to someone only to have them turn and run, putting themselves in danger and betraying that trust. That is pure as rock betrayal. Who's the one breaking the trust Mrs. Run The Car Into A Tree Trying To Escape? You think you're the only one hurt? Well guess the fuck what? I am too. And i don't plan on trusting you again so don't go all puppy-dog eye look on me because I don't think there is any reason that you'd leave thats good enough for me. You were doing great here. I was teaching you to swim, it's warm, we're nice to you, don't have to worry about basically anything, you just sit anywhere and be the wounded soldier getting carried half the way because you can't carry your own," his voice rose until he was yelling right back at her.

"ME? I can't carry my own? Like I don't want to be able to? It's not my choice! I didn't choose to come here, in fact I was full ready to take care of it back where everything was warm and happy and good and there was no cold-hearted bastards there to suddenly give you the cold shoulder when you try to get back and see your best friend because you miss true hugs, the ones that make you all better. You can't give that type of hug because your trust is only short term. When this was all over we'd never see each other and youd go on remembering me as Steph's kid, 'gorgeous' that hacked into Rangers internet. And I'd go back to where I want to be, away from it all and all the denial and betrayal here. You!, Bobby! Ranger! Steph! My own goddamn father hates me! Junior? I don't even know, he's to busy being intimidating and I get to the be the vulnerable little girl again, the helpless one right? Who as the tenencies to lock themselves in the bathroom and can't deal with emotional shit.

"I JUST WANTED TO GO HOME! I wanted to be where people loved me! Where I loved them, where I wasn't looked at and called a mistake! Everything was perfect before that bastard kidnapped me and fucked me all up and now I'm stuck with people who underestimate me and think I can't do anything but play on my computer all day, that little nerd that has good enough genes, the 'Morelli' Genes to have a nice body with no work," she was gasping for air and she had more to say, more to push from her chest, but she couldn't, it was too crowded in there now, she needed to leave and she needed Leo, and she needed her bed all over again. Homesick.

"Oh god," she muttered and turned, getting the toilet open fast enough to throw the contents of breakfast into it before breaking down into a pile of tears on the floor. When there were no more tears and nothing more to get rid of, caring hands were rinsing her mouth and her teeth and carrying her toward her bed.

"I need to be home. I need to be home again. I need Leo so bad," she cried, cruling into a ball again. "I'm such a wuss. I keep crying and crying anc crying to be home, it's pathetic," she growled out, her voice wet and angry as she went to move again, pushing at the blankets.

"Stop, thats how all of this started, now let me check your pupils, then you and Lester can finish talking things out calmly," Bobby said, moving toward her with his pen light. He knelt down in front of her and pulled open on of her eyes and flashed the light in, watchign the reactions, then did it to the other, flickering it in and out. She frowned at him.

"I hate those things, friggen power happy powermongerers," she mumbled.

Bobby shook his head and left with Junior on his heals, glancing at us from the corner of his eye before shutting the door. As soon as it was closed, Lester moved over to the bed and went to sit down a foot away at the same time as Jade stood, moving from his to pace angrily acround the room. She rubed at her eyes angrily.

"I can't fight with you anymore, Lester. So if you're going to be angry at me, then keep giving me the cold shoulder and get the hell out, because I don't think I can deal with anymore rejection," it was a plea, begging him as if to spare her.

His heart cracked slight as did the wall, though the wall had a chunk fall from the bottom and let it start to come down on him. "I'm not goign to do either. I obviously don't like being upset with you, I don't like shutting off my emotions and being like a good little soldier that doesn't care abot anything but what is happening at the momemt every moment and nothing about anyone else. But, I can't completely get over that you just left. You could have gone to us, talked to us about it and we could have given you guidence, helped you get in contact with Leo via Skype or something, hell, if we could pull the right strings we might have been able to get him down here, especially since he has a chance of being in danger."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Don't be, I understand why you did what you did, I just need you to know that it wasn't the right way and it could have gotten us all hurt, you in general though. You could ave killed yourself just with te crash alone," he paused and sighed, "as with the whole, rejection thing..Jesus." He shook his head roughly, his eyes sharp and angry with sadness reeling through them. "Is that what you really think? That nobody wants you? That just because Morelli is an ass that every one is that way? I know for sure that Steph doesn't think you're a mistake. For sure. She brags about you whenever she can now that we know about her. Have you seen the look on her face when she wastched you do things like breaking into Ranger's internet? While she was not happy about it, she was beeming at you when we all first met. Happiest I'd seen her in a while.

"Ranger doesn't hate you either, or not like you or anything like that. And I know he doesn't think your weak. Neither do I or Bobby or Junior, and though he doesn't say much, he knows whats best and understands. He's quiet but brilliant. He understood what was going on in your head before you did, and he admire how well you held out on not crying, he was impressed, especially since you haven't had training for things like that, which is good. It'snot good to surpress emotions like that, but they aren't easy to control or work with," he sighed and stood, moving over to her, pulling her into a hug, tuckingher head under his chin. "And Jade? I'm definately jealous that you found someone you like that much, and who likes you that much. But I wouldn't do anything to harm that, in fact, I premote it. I love you like my little sister and I want my little sister to be the happiest she can possibly be, but, safe too, so no doing any dumb things like that ever again," he said with a smile, pulling her from him and turning her toward the door and her laptop.

"Grab it," he said, nodding to it. She took it wit ha confused look. "Do you have a web cam?"

"Uhm, no, I don't think so."

He nodded, "Okay, well, I know where one is that we can use to get you hooked up with skype. I'm going get it so you can talk with Leo and not feel so homesick. I'm even going to introduce myself, whether you like it or not," he added wth a lash of a you u

They trotted out to the common room where Ranger was talking with Steph. Bobby and Junior were over by the stove, placing food on plates and talking, their movements lesuirely like they hadn't just seen or heard a big fight.

"So Ranger, you've heard of Leo, right? The one that got decked trying to protect Jade? Well, we want to set up a link with him through skype, and if necissary, later, I might reccomend having him down here as well, if I feel his life is in danger due to his placement in the issue."

"And what exactly in this situation is he a part of?"

"Well, he was there the day the whole issue started. He's kinda her non-official official boy friend and he'd be amazing leverage," Lester said.

"And he might have possibly hinted Mike down and beat the shit out of him because of what he and the man did to me with a group of friends, along with possibly maybe getting good info about them and their location," Jade added, biting her lip nervously. It was reasonable and true.

"He physically beat this guy up?" Ranger asked, eyes locked with mine.

"I'm almost positive, see, he was the one left with what he calls the 'pieces', after the incident, and he was very, very angry at him."

"Get him on skype, catch up while we figure out how to get him down here or us to go there. Where exactly is 'there'?" He finally asked.

Jade and Steph glanced at each other quickly.

"Steph, you trusted me to keep you safe and your daughter," Ranger said, disbelief lacing his voice.

"California," she finally told him.

"California? Could you get any farther?" Lester asked.

"Not really. I thought it fit. It was where I dreamed to live," Steph admitted.

"Okay," Rnager shook his head, obviously confused. "Just get the skype link going Lester than join us in the kitchen, Steph, you too. Jade you've got a few minutes with him alone."

Everyone nodded and Jade and Lester moved to the kitchen. He took the web cam and set it on the top of her laptop, letting her get all signed in then pushing it over to Lester, showing him the utmost trust by giving him her baby, her life. After a minute he was downloading the program and getting it finished set up, then pushed it back over to her to put in the info for his information to find him on it.

"What if he doesn't have Skype?"

"It's pretty popular. but if he doesn't then I'm gonna take the number and have you call hi mand set it up. Uou said he's big on computers? He's gonna have it," he said as he pulled him up. "See? Here he is. Send him a message."

She glanced at Lester and shrugged. 'Leo? Uh, this is Jade, you able to talk?' she typed in with weird looks over her shoulder at Lester with discomfort. It popped up and she saw his grinning face appear on the screen. She opened it to full size, a little box showing what she looked like in the corner. She noticed Lester hoovering just out of the screen, looking the kid up and down, taking in the boy, my age, dark black hair that went every which way and looked like some messed up hair gel production commercial, though I knew for sure that he had never put anything like that in his wondeful hair. His eyes were vibrant colors, a hazel color mostly that made his face look bright and his hair look rediculously dark.

"Jade!" If it was possible for his eyes and face to light up and smile even more, they did. He beemed at her over the camera. "Oh my god! I missed you so much! How are you? Are you okay? Is everyone real nice? Anyone I need to worry about? Beat up?"

Jade laughed, forgetting Lester momentarily, "I'm okay, a little beat up myself, but good, everyones great, well, my dad is terrible, I never want to see him again, but I'll explain that when I see you."

"Do you know when that is?" He asked eagerly.

"Sooner than you'd think, most likely." She replied cryptically. Lester's hand snaked over and poked her lightly below where the web cam could see.

"Okay, so, Leo, meet Lester, basically my body guard who is like my big bro here, and teaching me to swim."

Lester slid over, pushing her with him. He studied the screen a little more. "He, Leo, I've heard a lot about you," he said politely.

Leo fidgited slightly, not sure what to say or do. His fingers hid below the level of the web cam and he glanced at Jade nervously. "Uh, yea, nice to see you, too. I'm uh, yea, Leo."

Lester smiled then let his face and eyes get intense. "You hurt her, I'll screw you up for life, kid."

"I could say the same for you," Leo rebuttled, his face defensive.

"Okay, boys, pissing contest later when you're in private and you can pull out the rulers."

They both laughed and Lester nodded good-bye to Leo before glancing at Jade and heading back to the kitchen with the rest of the others, finding them all sprawled out casually across the kitchen. "He's a good kid," he informed Stephanie, giving her a reassuring smile.

Jade sat there and started laughing. "Wow, that was intense. I don't know if I want you two to meet anymore," she said, giving him a fake look of indicision.

"So, are you alone now?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yep. I miss you so much, I got in some serious trouble earlier when I tried to leave and ended up crashing their car because I missed you and needed a Leo hug."

He gave her a sad face. "I need a hug from you too," he said, kissing his fingers and pressing them to his web cam. "This will have to do for now," he told her.

She agreed and repeated his actions, pressing her two fingers against the lens and sighing.

"So he needs to be protected. Thats obvious. Big question is do we go to him or him to us?" Lester asked.

Ranger looked to be thinking, "I don't think I like bringing him here directly. Here at all, but no where directly unless thats the diversion. We need a place in the middle. where else do we have temporary safe houses? Even better is right there..." He paused then grabbed his cell and dialed control.

"Send me a list of all safe houses with at least three rooms and a kitchen," he instructed. A second later he hung up and looked at the screen of his phone, looking at the secured floorplans and locations of the safe houses. "This one is perfect. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, perfect size, it's located in between our location in the nice and beatifly brown land of Las Angles, California. Go pack up quick." He turned to Steph and looked at her especially. "Quick," he repeated for her.

She glared and huffed then stomped to their room and started packing their stuff though she did happen to notice how little of his stuff there was.

Ranger turned and walked toward the livingroom to find her sprawled out as comforably as possible on her side, talking to the little black-haired boy on the screen. He could see where his button hup shirt was draping off him.

"Jade," he said as he came into the room, raising and intreguied eyebrow at him. She carefully sat up.

"So whats the deal?"

"I'll tell you both once, so, Leo, my name is Ranger, I run a security company and I'm friends with Jade's mother, so I'm helping find the person threatning them, so I need you t o cooperate with us. Firstly, we're coming down there, and you're going to come with us to the safe house, where you will, in essence, be safe. Then, we put together a plan and execute. We go in, get them and out. Obtain them and return them to the police here. I'm going to se this all up, so we'll se you in a couple hours," he said, the stood and left, puling out his phone and promptly getting on it. He set up the safe house and talked to the police in Los Angles and getting them plane tickets from Maine to Logan Air Port in Boston, then from Boston to Nevada, and Nevada to Los Angles where they'd be met with a car big enough for extracting Leo from his enviroment.

"Jade, you need to go pack, now."

Jade nodded and looked back to Leo, her look sorry and appologetic. "Loves," she muttered to him.

"Loves," he said back, pressin his fingers to the lens. She did the same but was careful to make it look casual as she pressed her fingers to the screen and turned everything off. "So we're going back?" Jade asked, her voice excited and hopeful.

At Ranger's nodd, she turned and squeeled, running to her room as fast as she could without hurting herself and threw all her stuff in the suitcases, then grabbed her laptop and threw it over her shoulder, bags in each hand, bouncing on the heel of her foot anctiously. "I'm so excited," she mutted to Lester.

He laughed. "No way," he said sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes and smiled brightly. "I'm very excited to see Leo and be in my state again. It's like winter here, Los Angles doesn't do snow like you, our winter is just cooler temperatures, and this is pretty cool to us. I miss the heat," she said with as shiver, her shoulders bare in the barely thre tank top.

Steph slid next to her. "No way are you just wearing that show. You're about to see Leo, not a boyfriend who needs to see down your shirt, which by the way don't need to either. Jade sighed and rolled her eyes again at her mother who was alreayd digging around for an extra shirt.

"Mom, it's okay, I'm gonna be okay, I live htere, I live in tank tops, it's so hot there a short over it is going to be damp brfore I'm even there. I promise that it's okay," she said, "It's perfectly normal for people to wear barely anything now a days."

"It's only been a year since I've been down there, it can't have changed that much," Steph said, looking doubtfully at her daughter.

When everyone was ready, we filed from the house and a little down the drive where a car pulled up, looking exactly like the one Jade crashed.

Everyone looked at it, only Jade looked longer, still confused, "What? I crashed it. I wrapped it around a tree for goodness sakes, how much more dead can it get?" She asked, looking at the thing in front of her as Lester stole her bags but her laptop. "I don't understand," she muttered as she finished her walk around the car inspecting every inch of it. "There is not a single scratch on it," she stated.

"Wonder how that happened," Ranger said sarcastically as he walked from the house, his prescnece radiating authority. "It's funny what a different car entirely can do to it's shell," he said, then shook his head and took over the drivers seat, the man in the drivers seat moving to the back seat and sliding in. Jade slid in cautiously to the middle level, going over by the unopenable side with Lester next to her, Bobby and junior sqeezed into the back with the strange guy.

After a solid five minutes in silence, Jade turned around and looked at the new guy with curious and frightened eyes. "Who are you?"

"Guy," he replied.

She opened her mouth to respond, then pulled her head back and looked at his weird, shutting her mouth to stop gulping like a fish and finally turning around and facing forward in her seat.

After another minute she looked over to Lester, still puzzled. "Do you really call him 'Guy'?"

"Yep," Lester replied easily, "it's actually a bit of a joke because someone called him 'the new guy' and he was like "well I am a guy but I'm not new, and it just stuck. He was Guy, some people just have nick names like that, or me for example, where most people call me by my last name instead...Ranger isn't his real name, Steph is shortened, Junior isn't his real name and Bobby is exactly his real name, they've been altered just a little. Bobby is normal mainly though. "

"What's the story behind Junior?" She asked curiously.

"Hmm," he thought for a minute, grimacing, "the pg version is making fun on Girl Scouts, Junior is the level with the green vest/sash thingies, and one day he came in with a slip of paper and a cookie sheet that this kid had given him when they came by his house. That was so funny," Lester added, chuckling to himself.

Jade glanced int othe back seat and noticed that Junior's face was stoic, completely blank, and she couldn't tell if it was a good or a bad thing. "Is Junior okay?"

"Yep, he's great, not fond of that story or the non-pg version of which I'm not telling. No buts!" he said when she went to say it. "There is absolutely no way you will get me to tell you. Junior would have to tell you himself, because no one else will for risk of being murdered in their sleep, or finding their car strung on a christmas tree in pieces of ornaments."

Her eyes widened and she smiled. "Has he done that before?"

"Yep, thats why he was forced to join the military. Reached past his three strikes and hit that last one and was given the choice of military service or jail time. He chose military and got to meet people like Ranger."

"What about you? He met Ranger but not you?"

"I wasn't in that part of the military," he admitted. "I was a SEAL." Conversation ended after that and she let it, rocking back in forth, listening to the directions given by the annoying electronic voice.

"Ranger, some day I am going to steal your GPS' and fix them. Give them real voices. One more human and less Machine-like. One less annoying too. That thing is going to be the death of us all. It's so friggen annoying!" She added under her breath, mumbling off about how easy it would be for her to change it and fix the damn thing. Hell, she figured she could even put Steph or Ranger's voice on their if they really wanted. Jade herslef thought it'd be more tasteful for her to alter the voice to sound more human, but not like anyone in spacific because she thought that it would be really creepy to be getting your directions from someone you recognize.

With a groan she leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes to rest for the rest of the trip.

Like mother like daughter, Stephanie was up front doing the same thing, right leg bouncing eagerly to do something other than sit there and do nothing. she needed to talk or think or plan or draw or...listen to music...but nothing. Utter silence. She let out a muffled groan and tried to rest throught the last of the carride, knowing that it wasn't toom uch farther to the airport and not hard to get to the plaines.

Ranger just sat silently watching the two wait and grinned at them in the rear view mirror, laughing to himself about how similar they are at the same time as being so different, the differences being from Morelli's side. And, as much as he'd prefer not admit it, the gene mix made a good kid.

They pulled in at the Air Port parking lot and everyone was told to leave anything in the car that was considered a weapon becuase if they were stopped by security they were left behind to a certain extent. It was basically for Guy and Bobby and maybe Lester...mostly Guy though, because Bobby was the medic and they'd need him to fix Jade up if she kept getting hurt and rehurting herself she was at the rate she was going.

Everyone grabbed their stuff, Lester helping Jade carry her extra stuff and Ranger with Steph's since they had the most stuff. They grabbed their tickets and got their stuff on, then headed toward the gates, going through several metal detectors. They all came out clean, no real troubles to stop them, only some weird looks that were explained as the men crowded around in a formation around Steph and Jade, protecting them from anyone that may threaten them . It was basic traingular formation, smart strong and looked intimidating. normally a crowd that big would be pushed into but anyone that came too close stepped away and hid in their little corner or what worked as their corner when walking through an airport terminal.

Steph and Jade shot each other a look and shrugged, then glanced behind them at Lester and Bobby, grinning at them. Junior and Guy had the sides while Ranger walked in front, obviously the alpha male, you could tell he was the one in charge by the way he walked, stood, and spoke, authority and power rang with everything he sad a much as everything he did. He was the definition of power and control and he was damn good at it. He was one of those people who'd take insult to being called vulnerable, or feel sick if they thought themselves weak for some reason.

Most of Rangers men were like that, they didn't like to be taken from work, sowhen they were sick or disabled and Ranger was forced to reduce their hours and limit it to desk work he felt terrible, but he knew he had to and that it was the best thing for the men to do for their health. Stopping and an healing every now and then is always good.

They stopped at the appropriate gate and Ranger gave the lady the tickets for Steph, Jade and himself, then waited until Lester went throught, the next to go and he stood in perfect formation behind Jade who he'd positioned there to be by Lester and Steph by him, knowing that was who they wre used to getting to cover, the rest of the men would be left to secure the scene and check on them.

They boarded the plane, silently, the boats of Ranger and Lester matching too closely to not be creepy. They all plopped down into seats on the plane and settled for the ride, the romation basically the same. Lester sat on the left of Jade while Steph sat next to Jade, then Ranger, and Bobby and Junior took the back of them and Guy sat in front of them, silently obvserving all at all times though enjoying the lulling sound of the engines.

Once they were past that take off point Jade pulled out her laptop, plugged her headphones in and started making a new background image with planes in them. She got half way through and it was coming together nicely when she scratched it and exited from it and opened up her skins again, working on the different colors and patterens. She made tw others, the one she had started that night and one another inspired by the clouds. When she had the desired colors and ecverything, she added a lens flare and positiond that and the words as well as she could.

When it was totally made, she uploaded them and added them to the site, happy when her external cascading style sheet worked and she could click the sperate links to change the style sheet it went to, now she just had to test it online...just wait until they were in California, she'd get it really on the internet in no time!

Steph stared at a book of sudoku and solved them slowly. placing them slowly but at an even pace throughout the page while Ranger half watched her with mild amusement. He'd glance around the room every couple minutes, then watched her, then went back. She'd give a big sigh every time she turned the page, then start on the next one with her hand laying against her cheek, her face one of epic boredom. By the time she'd made it through a chunk of pages hours later, she was bored again even though they had had a break between the planes from Maine and the one to Nevada where Steph ended up changing, along with everyone else at shifts.

Their big bags were automatically transferred to the other plane and they kept their clothes in their carry-on, holding her baby close to her and not letting anyone too close, where as Lester was doing the same with Jade, holding her almost completely to his chest, glaring at anyone who dared brush up against them too close. He was paranoid, Jade and Steph decided, thats what Ranger, Guy, Lester, Bobby, Junior and probably every other RangeMan at the company was just as paranoid. they both rolled their eyes everytime they struck a defensive pose and attracted more attention than necissary.

All of the flights went slowly. Lester was occupiedonly by watching Jade play on her laptop for little bits at a time, but after three hours of that total, the laptop died and there was no more more either of them to do. They sat bored for a while longer.

Ranger watched Stephanie do Sudoku puzzles for a while, and took over a few when he could after she dozed, then passed it off and the rest of the boys passed it around for a while, taking turns until both girls had eventually fallen asleep though Jade was much more resistant to it than Steph who had simply konked off.

Jade faught off sleep as best as she could, trying to keep her bored lids open until she hadn't even realized that she had nodded off. Lester held her hand soothingly, hoping for her sake that she didn't have a nightmare. If she did, Lester was going to have to wake her as fast as humanly possible so it didn't get the wrong attention.

After both of the girls had woken up from their couple hour naps, they stretched and Jade took a glance out the window, then shrieked when she had started to look away and looked right back, bounding over to it with Lester attatched at the hip to her. "YAY! God I miss home. You giys are great but there is nothing like old old friends and the people who raised you to help you feel the home sweet home."

Steph flinched slightly but left it when her daughter came over and grabbed her arm, pulling her up with her when she started to bounce excitedly with small little jumps. "I ge t to show you what I did to my room a bit ago. It's awesome. I'm really into Faries right now, and Tinker Bell more specifically, so I got some posters and those fuzzy ones you can color and I love them. I love it. And I cleaned off my desk and now I can actually work at it. I got extra extension cords and for a birthday present last summer we got people to come over and check the for incase things like lightning and powersurges that it wont cause power surges and ruin anything in my room or the house. We update out lightning rod so that it is better and there is an even better chance that if there is lightning and that it will hit the rod and not the house, though it ws unlikely before, it's even less likely now. I'm very excited about it. Do you know what that means?

"Like on of my best friends lost his Xbox that way, the powersurge fried it so I wanted to make sure my tech, was all safe and it is now," she grinned happily, her body still bouncing slightly though Lester pushed her into the seat and dropped down next to her, allowing her leg to bounce instead of her whole body, though the actions never slowed or stopped her at all. She just ontinued to talk about the powersurges and how to prevent it and what to do if you think there is going to be one, ways to prevent it like turning off computers lowers the risk through a thunder storm, now she was positive that by the time her mother left the plane she was never going to have to ask a question about power surges again, because she could be a world renouned expert at it and Bones at the same time, and hell, even her bounty hunting.

After a solid sic minutes of babbling away and jittering it was making Lester antsy so he stuck a hand on her knee to stop it.

"Sorry, I'm just really excited becuase I get to go home."

"After," Lester added.

"Yea, but I'm still going home, it doesn't really matter where, as long as we do go home...and I mean all of us, alive, well and whole, as in, one piece, no holes either...I want no bullets I want you all to see my room after, okay? Think of that and how dissapointed I'd be if you weren't there to see if after because you were stupid enough to get shot in Los Angles when even I hadn't managed to do that yet," Jade said, her heart rate picking up as she began getting a bit panicked at the thought of some of them not living. But it wasn't going to happen. they were all going to be fine because they were trained and good. they knew what the hell they were doing and there was no chance whats so ever of any of them gettig hurt.

"Jade, We're going to be okay," he soothed easily.

She nodded but didn't stop, just doing to movement so she was doing someting and they wouldn't think that she was deep in thought that terrified her. She didn't want them to know how scared she was that they were going to get hurt and possibly not come back because of her, that it'd have been her fault they got hurt.

"Oh god," she whispered as she ran through scenarios in her head.

They took one look at her and swore. "Jade, nothing is going to happen. This is not your fault either. This is nothing that you could have controled. You did not chose to be taken, or to be their guini pig, remember? Remember what you were telling me earlier? We're all gonna go an see your bedroom after," he was iterrupted by the announcement to put on their seatbelts, the light flickering on.

"But your seat belt on, Jade," Lester reminded her jittering body. God he couldn't wait until they got to Leo's house, if he was going to be the only cure for this than his house was not going to come fast enough for them all and the sanity of Jade was at stake.

If she put all of that on her shoulder then she wasn't going to be able to think clearly and objectively and they were going to need that to track them when the time came to it. at the moment it looked like once they got Leo they were going to the safe house, setting a plan for night something along those lines, he had an idea as to what was going to happen wbut he was hopping that Leo could assist in that plan and make her sane again. he missed the sane Jade, the one who was funny, calm, silent but deadly type...right now she was jittery, all over the place, hell, she'd react wildly to any stimuli.

With that thought at mind he grabbed her hand and rubbed soothing circles across the back of her knuckles, not liking how tense she was in preperation for anything, something. It was insane for her to do that.

He laughed at himself and how sane and insane and sanity and insanity came into play making everything a pun that would be cheesy if he ever vocalized those types of things.

He sighed and ran a hand over his face. It was too stressful for him to be thinknig about all of this at once. he wasnt unsed to thinking about more than a few brains and never one as complicated as Jade's. It was frusterating for him to even think about thinking what she waws thinknig at the moement or moments as she jittered about on a high caffine like state. Which is what she resembled, someone very high strung from too much coffee, though he knew that wasn't true becuse she couldn't have gotten any coffee anytime because she was with him the entire time, or technically it was him with her the entire way due to his job and his responsiblities to her and to her safety.

She didn't calm even when they were safely in the car with the luggage. "You guys all have to go, go! Go home, go somewhere safe this is my fight, not yours. This feels unfare to me to have all these people fighting for me when I dbarely even know them. It feels wrong. suicidal, and if someone is hurt then I don't know how I'd ever live with that later on in life, or if I ever would. if I turn my self in, it all ends," she said clearly, like a veil was lifted from over her eyes. "Then Leo is safe, you're all safe and mom and Ranger and Lester and...mainly Leo is safe, and auntie is safe...what would I do without her. I can go home if I live and play with my grounding and powersurge protcted internet and electic outlets. Please, all of you just leave. Mom, you wont have to miss work or friends or anyting to worry about me, more money for yourself and less you're throwing at me, I'm fine, living large while you struggle and get in more trouble than me. you need it more than me, and, why me? I'm a mistake anyway, why not make my life worth someying now?"

Steph had a flash of beatin Morelli's face in and felt a slight spark of happiness because it was a reason to, though ranger wouldn't need a reason to...but a reason just made it worse for him. He was screwed after this.

Ranger slammed the breaks on the car at the house of Leo and he walke up, got Leo and left, already knowing that the parents had been previously aware of the situation though theirs was much different than the real problem. Leo was pushed into a seat with Jade and he immediately went to hug her. She accepted the hug, not letting go, just burring her face in his neck and holding on for deal life. "I've got to give my self to them Leo, it's the only way that everyone can live, it;s the only way that no on is hurt beccause of me and my mistakes and mess ups. I wont have it, and I'm being selfish because I dont want to deal with the guilt of it afterward."

Ranger was driving fast and the safe house wasn't far, so by the time she was reaching the end of her speach and was starting to repeat her reasons an trying to get them all to leave, they were there. Leo got out and drug Jade out, and everyone watched him pull her into him and cover her lips with his, her body shifting immediately from begging to all in with it. Neither moved for seven seconds, then Jade pressed back against him slightly, their lips parting only enough to get little bits of air and hand their hands come up to frame each others face with their hands.

Steph stood staring, her jaw hanging open and Ranger took advantage by pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth and distracting her momentarily while her daughter made out with who seemed to be the love of the each others lives.

Lester had no one kissing him to destract him and he openly gawked, feeling protective of her, yet a part of him knowing that Leo was going to take care of her, especially whenhe saw her hands move to his shoulder and neck while his went to her lower back and shoulder blades to haul her against him harder.

When they let go after at least thirty seconds, Jade staggered slighly, smiling while Leo had a dazed look on his face while they kinda looked each every other way ocuardly. "Yea, I should grab my stuff," Jade said.

"Yea, me too, and set up in my room, then we can find a place to set up a work station?"

She nodded. "Yea, se ya." They each tried going both ways until they got aorund eachothter finally after an acuard couple seconds. Once they were both inside and going opposite direction, Lester, Bobby, Junior and Guy all laughed looking at each other.

"Holy shit," Guy said. "There was more in that kiss than I've seen in married couples, that was like, more intense than Ranger and Steph over there, except when they're both horny and neither will admit that they need the other, then there is basically an explosion when they're put togehter in the same room alone the right way.

After a second of acting surprised, everyone managed to get their things inside and into their rooms, most of the guys just ditching their bags on the bed before moving to check on the perimeter and the area. Lester and Bobby were the supervisors that stood unnoticed and uncared on the side ofthe room as the two love bug teens set down their laptops and gotthem both out, dragging cords all over the place that couldn't possibly all be from two computers. After manipulating the power strips and the arangement of the table in everyway they finally settled on the organization ofthe table, they seemed to not even notice that Lester and Bobby were infact in the room and turned everything on, gave each other a rundown of the others machine, Jademaking sure to explain her defenses that worked against Ranger when he had tried to do the peeping Tom routine on her computer.

Leo explained how his computer was more for hacking than regular play, and was run purely from linux because it was easier to hack with. So, from her computer, she turned on iTunes and put on the party list and she started dancing with him, starting off a little ways apart until they were pressed right against each other basically humping the other. His hands had grabbed her hips and kept them with the beat, pusling in time with the loud drums.

They watched them go at it for at least fifteen minutes before a slower song came on and he spund her around and pulled her up his chest, his hand resing low on her back and her shoulder and hers looped under his armpits and gripped his shoulders like she was drowning and he was going to save her. He watched as the song went on how droopy her eyes got and he yawned in time with it, and started toward the empty couch.

They were fully prepared to stop the hot little couple from going to far, but he just dropped onto the couch with her sprawled across his chest and fell asleep, which is where they were, fully dressed, with Bobby and Lester barely staying awake on the other side of the room in site of the kids, draped all the way across the chair, taking up every imaginable ounce of space on it

"Lester? Bobby?" Steph asked when she walked in, looking at her daughter, "they didn't...?"

"Nope, they set up, talked computer, danced until she was falling asleep and basically passed out on the couch, we were very good babysitters," he added at the end. "Doe sthat mean the good babysitter gets to go to bed?"

"Only if that bed is out here and you will be able to wake if they do," Steph told him, Ranger behind her, smirking.

"Why doesn't mommy and Daddy take care of it instead of the concerned uncles?"

"Because Mommy and Daddy have previous obligations," Ranger supplied, dragging Steph to their room.

"Awgh," Lester moaned, grabbing his chair and pulling it closer to them and flopping back out over it and closing his eyes again, allowing himself in to the restful state of awareness.

Bobby, Junior and Guy all took the extra beds that were unoccupied due to the ocupancy on the couch and chairs. Ranger and Steph were silent in their room, quietly enjoying the company ofthe other thatthey hadn't enjoyed in a while. Jade and Leo were sprawled across the couch like a couple, Jade grasping Leo's shirt with her fist and pulling it against her cheek, sound asleep. Lester was the one on a all night to make sure the kids didn't get into freaky business out there alone.

In the morning, thats where everyone woke...except the teenagers. They were still asleep, though you could tell that it was getting a little hot by how Leo had stretched all the way out, one leg off the couch, one arm up the side, and Jade, just as bad, on her stomach with her ankles wrapped around his legs and her arm dangling off the couch, the other still fisted in the cloth fabric that had risen up through the night in an innapropriate way, but not that innapropriate. It was more wierd for Steph to find her teenage daughter still sound asleep with the back of her shirt ridden up to where on od Leo's hands rested, up, brushing her bra strap that was partly unhooked.

With all the commotion and Guy slaving away around the stove to make breakfast from lots of little grey packts that had been stored here, and that being it because no one had brought anything from the other hous, Jade and Leo awoke, calmly at first not noticing anything weird, Leo running his hand up and down her back soothingly until they both simultaniously froze and pulled apart, Leo falling onto the floor while Jade jumped back and almost flipped over arm rest, then stopped and whimpered, her arm going around her midsection with pain.

Once Leo clearned his head enough to think and realize what was going on, he was over next to her faster than anyone should move so soon after waking. "Jade? Jade? Is thiswhat you meant when you said 'serious trouble'?"

"Only a part of it, I crashed the car I was leaving in and it my head, and reripped me stitches," Jade said.

"Stitches?" His face creased with worry and he pulled at the shirt where she was holding, taking in the blood that had already seeped through it. He looked at the stitched and touched them tenderly, running the back of his knuckles over them gently. "Oh, god, Jade, what happened?"

"Stabbed. but don't worry, it was just this guy I went after when I was out picking up skips with my Mom."

"It hurts?" He asked, watching her face crease up.

She didn't respond immediately, just bit her lip and let her eyes well with tears of pain from holding so still in the bad position. "Oh, Jade," he trailed off, pushing her shirt backdown and looking up at the people he was just realizing were there. "Uhm, anyone hav any pain medications?"

Bobby nodded and went to grab some from his first aid kit. He came back with a needle of a morphine and showed it to Leo, but not Jade, who made a face at that. "I'm gonna pick you up, ready?" He asked her, looping his arms under her knees an picking her up. It wasn't as easy as for Lester or Ranger or Junior anyone but wanted to do it and he managed to do it and get her to her bed and lay ber down. She was crying by now, the pain washing over her.

"Whatever you do, don't leave me under the drugs alone, don't do it, please," she begged. "I'd never leave you," he told her, using a hand behind his back to motion for Bobby to do it then.

"When you wake up in a little bit, you can have some food and we can figure out exactly where those pricks are," he said, watching her face cringe then fill with fear as the room swam.

"It's okay," he told her gently, pressing his lips to her forehead.

"I like this kid," Lester told Stephanie. "If that was my kid, I'd be so fuckig proud to have a kid that awesome, someone as awesome as Leo deserves to know a little more, and Leo is good for her, and her for him. He held her hand and pulled a chair by the bed and continued to hold her hand while he sat there watching her sleep under the drugs. He moved up by the head board and sat wit his back against it, letting himself close his eyes as his thumbs traced circles on her hands.

**Chapter 21**

Leo awoke to the sound of whimpering, the hand he once held gone, used to shove the covers from her as she complained about the flames consuming her, that they were too much, too hot.

"Bobby!" He shouted desperately as she pushed at her clothes next, peeling her shirt and pants off and pressing herself against Leo, saying how cold his skin was. He grabbed a sheet and pulled it up around them both, covering her.

"I think she may be having a bit of a fever, she sat up and said it was too hot ans started stripping, she says my skin is cold?" He added so he knew why she had her arms wrapped around him in a death grip.

"No," she whimpered as Bobby attempted to move the hand from Leo's skin. "Please don't, it's so hot here, so hot, fire everywhere, cramped," she mumbled.

"Is the floor cold? grey everywhere? On the walls and floors?"

"Oh god yes, the floors are cold," she mumbled, sliding her hands up his shirt to press her skin against his. she tossed the shirt aside and he allowed her to lay him on the bed.

"The walls are grey too? Is it the old mill? Where those people died a couple years back in the fire?"

"Yes," she whispered, opening her eyes and pressing her lips to his suddenly, rubbing herself agains him. He rolled them over and held himself above her.

"What else did you see?" He asked, "in your dream. What else was there?"

"They were there, Mike and the old red head guy, Russ or something, oh god, Leo, Mike wanted me so bad, I denied him I swear, I said no to him. I'd never touch him over you," she slowed her breathing and locked eyes with him. "I love you."

""I love you too," he told her, lowering his lips to hers lightly, pulling her to him and moving his hands across her skin. He wasn't dumb but he wasn't experienced, so he explored her, running his fingers across her skin gently, loving the feel of her soft skin under his fingers.

"I wanted and want you. Always you," Jade said.

"Forever," Leo agreed, then kissed her softly again and pulled back. "You're hurt, and Bobby is staring at us wondering if he needs to get your mom, so we need to compose ourselves and continue this investigation. Now, as much restraint as I'm showing right now, It'd be easier if you didn't strip off your shirt and throw yourself at me then take my shirt off, it's incredibly hard to control yourself after that," he said wit a laugh as he released her and grabbed for his shirt. He tossed her the pants he found over on the other side of the bed and she tugged them on.

"So when did the clothes come off?"

"Clothes came off?" Leo responded, smiling at Bobby.

"Oh, no, that must have been part of my little fantasy. But, we know where to find them, where you can set up the trap, or we...we could help..."

"Leo you can help by making sure she doesn't get hurt and keeping you two alive and safe...don't underestimate her," Ranger warned as he grabbed the address and left the room with everyone trailing behind him, leaving the two love struck teens in the house alone. With like four beds. It was temptation beyond temptation. A cruel one at that.

"Are you hungry? You must be," he said, looking for what they had for edible food. He grabbed the left overs from the breakfasty lunch thing they had from the fridge, Leo plopped it in the microwave and stuck it on a minute and a half, then moved over to Jade and pulled her over to the counter and leaned her against it then pressed his lips against hers, sucking on her soft lips and pushing his tongue into her mouth and ran it around her mouth before rubbing it against hers and nipping on her lip. Oneof his hands hooked on her hip and the other against her lower back to pull the against each other. She moaned at the exploration of her mouth and leaned into him, one of her hands using his belt to pull him to her and the one she laced into his hair to keep his mouth closer to hers.

When the microwave beeped, he pulled back and smiled. The door opened with a ding and he pulled it out and poured it onto a plate he scavenged from the cabinets, and two forks he dug for in one of the never ending and replicating draws of stuff. They each took a few bites from it and frowned but shrugged and continued because it was that or nothing. There was no alternative to eating the crap they were forced to eat.

Ranger and Lester and Steph took the front door while Bobby, Guy and Junior took the back and through the radios they counted down from three. On three they kicked te doors open, wood splintering off the hinges that send dust flying at the front entrence. the mill was large, grey, cold cement floors that radiated ice while the walls were the same grey and just made you feel empty. It wasn't meant to be cozy, it was a paper mill and people worked there, they came and went and they didn't do it for fun per say, though there was probably the person or two over the years that loved the job while the rest delt with it because it payed the bills.

The room was empty, they all though with a fear, until and echoing from above alerted them from movement above. They split up and went sprinting off in opposite directions, Lester and Ranger going up the stairs to the right, Bobby and Steph staying by the doors and Junior and Guy to the left, searching into the darkness.

The shadowed figure sprinted away from the two men coming up the stairs at him, leaping over a metal bar that stood in the way and attempting to make a getaway. Lester was faster catching his foot as he went for a second leap off the edge of the platform

Meanwhile, Jade and Leo finished eating and moved to the couch. Leo working hard to ignore the knowledge that they were alone and that she was unbelievably sexy in her crumpled pajamas covering not nearly enough to calm him. Jade moved to put a movie in, one she picked off the shelf with no thought but that of a distraction.

Leo was lost in thought, absent-mindedly running his hand in small circles across her lower back. He wished he could do so many things, his perverse brain running off on a train of wandering thought thinking about her.

Jade was stretched across his lap half watching the movie and partly thinking and dozing off. She adjusted herself and stopped moving instantly as she felt something. Her breath caught and she flushed red.

Leo knew exactly what she'd felt, though he didn't get embarrassed about it, he clenched his teeth and dropped his head backward trying to picture disgusting things to get rid of the boner Jade had her head against.

Leo's eyes snapped open as he felt Jade move, she turned her head into his lap and very gently kissed the fabric over his now-hard penis. She felt his thighs tense, and she squeezed her own together, knowing that what she was feeling was excitement.

He saw her legs move together and grabbed her arms and drug her up him, careful not to jostle her too much. He pressed his lips to hers and she melted into it, her body pressing against him. He was hard. Really hard, pulling the back of her hips against him urgently he groaned a little. Her nails dug into his shoulder and she pulled away from his lips with a gasp, oxygen low. He carefully pushed her over onto her back, slipping between her legs to press himself against her. Jade pulled herself against it with pleasure, feeling the burn grow in her. One hand held himself above her while the other grasped at her breast through the shirt, loving the warmth he could feel.

She was loosing her mind, moaning and gasping. "Leo," she gasped out breathily. "Oh my _god_ LEO!"

"Jesus Jade," he said, taking his hand off her and bringing it up on the other side of her head to hold himself steadier.

She groaned, "that didn't mean stop."

"They will kill me, oh my god what am I thinking," he mumbled off at the end, getting off her and swapping positions, pulling her on top of him. She was bright red with embarrassment at how she'd acted, caught in the moment and riding with the feelings. "I want you, Jade, don't think I don't, but you're hurt and I would kill myself if I hurt you. I cant bare to see you in pain," he said, pulling her shirt up to show the large bandage over her side. The bruise had changed to a pukish green color and she flinched before he even touched it.

His face contorted with sadness, dropping her shirt and helping her sprawl across his chest more comfortably. finding it impossible to find a position her picked her up and walked down the hall to a bedroom and laid her on the bed. He locked eyes with her as he pulled off his shirt, and grabbed her mesh shorts and dragged them down her legs, ignoring the small panties she adorned. He ditched his pants as well and crawled into bed with her. She moved onto his chest partially and clung to his warmth, and the security she felt.

Leo pulled the blanket over them and let himself relax into a sleep.

Leo felt her press herself against him, her legs wrapping around his waste partially with the center of her heat pressing roughly against his growing erection. His breathing was no longer even and with a gasp of excitement he opened his eyes. She was snaked around him, every inch of skin humanly possible was pressed against him. Her arms slid up her sides seductively yanking her shirt over her head and throwing it aside.

Her supple breasts spilled from her bra, pressed against her chest. He closed his eyes and grit his teeth, focusing as best as possible, keeping his cool. Oh _god_ the temptation was overwhelming. His hands reached behind his head and ripped the pillow out from underneath him and he smothered his face in it, biting it and screaming with frustration. He didn't want to stop her it felt good and she was happy but he also knew that she was sleeping, dreaming of him in her sleep. _Lord thats hott_, he thought as he clenched his fists once more. With gritted teeth he flipped them over, pinning her hands up gently while keeping himself from her reach.

"Jade, I need you to wake up," he said painfully.

"Oh, don't stop," she gasped out, arching for him.

"I'm not going to be able to stop myself soon, wake up, Jade, wake up."

"Mmm...Leo?" her eyes flittered open and she stretched with a feline grin, "mmm, I was enjoying an amazing dream why did you wake me? News?"

"Oh trust me I know what an amazing dream it was," he said, moving closer and pressing his erection against her bottoms.

He felt her skin flush as the blood rushed to the top heating the skin. With a fluid movement he rolled off her and moved to the bathroom, pushing the door shut and turning on the cold water.


End file.
